Reconciliation
by Ayngel
Summary: Earth 1985. The Seekers destroyed all that Mirage had and Mirage hates them. But confronted with the also troubled Skywarp, will this always be so? Other pairings, intrigue, supernatural stuff, *slash*. Starscream x Skywarp x TC. S.Warp x Mirage
1. Prologue

**== RECONCILIATION ==**

**By Ayngel**

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**Prologue**

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_I do not own Transformers, or any characters therein, or any other aspect of it. Any appearance otherwise is complete imagination. I will make no money from this story._

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I've redone the prologue for this story, as it was unnecessarily long winded. This should be much more palatable – and if you don't like prologues at all – just go straight to chapter 2 :-)

This is quite a dark tale. The Autobots are not saints, it has political undertones and it involves difficult and complex individuals, as neither Mirage nor Skywarp are your average Autobot or Decepticon, and neither show their inner goings on outwardly; so it's a challenge in any event, let alone in the first person – but its a likeable challenge!

My interpretation of Mirage is different from some others. He's often portrayed as a sweet, lonely thing - a misplaced rich kid who can't cope very well in the prevailing environment. In this story, this is only partially so. Mirage is also highly intelligent and talented and in possession of an extremely powerful weapon (I am not aware of anyone else in either faction able to use an electro disruptor) He is a force to be reckoned with - but part of a different culture from the Autobots, the old "ruling class", something which was never popular with them and now has been totally destroyed by the 'Cons. He has a complex past. He hates the 'Cons but is not one of the 'Bots, fighting for them as a mercenary but frequently disillusioned because of his marginalisation, which has implications for his relationship with them: they admire him but because he is different _and _has superior abilities they are ever wary. His solitary tendencies and aloofness don't help.

All this makes Mirage not as sweet as some might have him - and somewhat embittered - but, given that he's also beautiful, demure and sophisticated, he is also very exciting and enigmatic. Well – I think so. But then I'm biased! He is also empathetic, however, because underneath it all he is misunderstood, and suffers greatly.

As for Skywarp – suffice it to say he has a depth of perception and a penchant for beauty which is not outwardly apparent and a great desire to be rich :-)

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_Warnings__: none for this chapter, but story later contains adult themes, slash, violence, course language _

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**Author: ****Designation Mirage. **

**Autobot Special Operations Team. **

**Position: Intelligence Officer**

To be invisible.

It is power: It is to see what cannot normally be seen, to hear what cannot normally be heard. To break rules undetected, to take unhindered. To tease and to scare, ultimately, to terrorise, and to overpower and then to withdraw leaving no trace. It is to instil great fear. For there is no enemy more terrifying or more deadly than the one who can strike and kill but is an unknown quantity.

I did not join the Autobots at the start of the war. Belonging in a different world of wealth and past rule I was not one of them, and they did not understand my ways, or my need for revenge. I worked alone, inhabiting a secret world of shadows and lost sparks; an existence of stealth and guile which few who knew me before the war would have thought possible. I rested in the darkness and I hunted in the light, unseen, taking my enemies out like the creatures I had hunted before and living from their spoils. They hunted me also but I passed through their ranks like a ghost, undetected and unsnared, and I left them always in confusion and great fear. Revenge I had in plenty, a triumph far superior to the reactive, half hearted efforts of the Autobots.

Invisibility is to have power; but all power has its limitations. And it did not save me forever.

Some time before Earth, I was captured by Ravage, who was, like me, a hunter, an ancient creature of stealth, patience and persistence. She took me and I was held at Mordac, the Decepticon stronghold on Cybertron. I still remember nothing of events there, which is merciful and perhaps preserved my sanity, as Mordac was notorious, and the methods of the Decepticons were less than benevolent, and few emerged alive or intact - if they emerged at all.

Yet, somehow, I prevailed, and escaped – which I surmised owed to my scant knowledge of the Autobots about whom the 'Cons desperately sought to know more; and I thought myself lucky, and to have made the right choice regarding the 'Bots.

And so it may have been if that was all. But it was not. For I soon realised that not only did I remember nothing of my capture but _I remembered nothing about my previous life at all_.

It was a shattering predicament. For with no past, how there could there now be a future? So it was that need and desperation drew me to the Autobot camp. They were kind to me in my fragile state; no doubt hopeful that I would join them, and, eventually, I did so reluctantly; not because I believed in what they stood for and now only partly for revenge. But because they alone could tell me who I was, and what I once had been.

But knowledge is not memory; the wounds were not healed and the recreations of my past did not return: Life as I knew it began in a bunker close to the ruins of Iacon; sparklinghood, mechalescence, my life in Iacon: all that had been before the war was lost to me and of the war only scant glimpses remained; and then I despaired again and drifted in and out of their Cause, not knowing whether I belonged with them or not and searching alone for some vestiges of identity, some spark of recall, and finding none.

And I freely admit that when I came to Earth - a hostile world, ugly, raw and lacking in comforts and filled with underdeveloped, uncivilised organics - it was as much as anything a last bid to find something of worth in a Universe which had deserted me, and in which life had ceased to have meaning.

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**Author: Designation Skywarp. **

**Elite Aerial Combat Unit. **

**Position: Second in Command**

The war was supposed to make things better for Seekers.

Before the war, Seekers were nothing on Cybertron. Pests which had been brought in from outside; lowly off world scum; organics turned Cybernetic freaks. There were lots of nice places on Cybertron. But we weren't even allowed on the walkways of Iacon, and most Cybertronians would happily have blown us off the face of the planet.

Of course, the Prime Government said it wasn't like that. They said everyone was equal. The Prime Government had to make that out because it got elected to make everyone equal, and to do away with the ruling castes. But that was all right. They put Seekers in jail, and asylums, or out scavenging in the provinces – so in the end many didn't know if we were equal or not. We weren't there to be seen to test the theory.

Seekers weren't the only ones to suffer. Don't ever let anyone tell you what the Autobots supported was just and equitable. That was only if you were the right stuff.

So many Seekers suffered so much. It makes me sick to the core just to think of it.

After a while, Cybertron got really overcrowded, and when the missions to outer worlds failed to turn up energon sources, it was fragged.

That was when Megatron planned his coup. And small wonder he made his armies from all the mechanisms that Optimus Prime had let down so badly with his hypocrisy. Oh yes. They try to blame the 'Cons for everything; what they never recognised was how easy Prime made it for his brother to succeed.

So - we were going to take over Cybertron. The rightful hierachy was going to prevail. Survival of the fittest and strongest; and with the best of the best at the top ... and that meant _Seekers _at the top ... and getting what the best deserved to have.

Only - it didn't really happen. The_ best of the best_ just didn't quite didn't quite make it like they were supposed to. Iacon wasn't full of sky cities again, with us in flash offices, running things. We weren't waving to teaming masses or commanding vast armies; Nor were we sitting in luxury homes sampling Premium Grade; or cruising the southern sea; or basking on a revitalised moon of Itopis.

Rather, by the time we went to Earth, we'd spent the last five hundred vorns or so kind of - _underground_. Stuck in Mordac, sneaking out on raids to Iacon just to keep ourselves going; No luxury quarters, and the energon we were managing to squeeze out of the measly selenium rods we scraped up _definitely_ wasn't Premium. And we were having to live like that partly because a lot of Cybertron above ground wasn't really _there_ any more - because we'd totalled it - and partly ...

Well, we'd just blown it, hadn't we? Things had screwed up. The leaders were fighting and we were scattered, divided, underenergised and out of control.

But then, a miracle! This _Earth _mission – this following of the Autobots. And Starscream knew where they were going and Megatron wanted what they were going for and it seemed like a second chance...

So here's what I told myself when I came to Earth: that the Decepticon Cause was still the best and the greatest and it had not stopped giving hope to Cybertron; and it made me something, and not nothing, and one day I was still going to be rich and famous because it still had it all ...

... and even though things hadn't really – well – gone _quite _as well as they could have in the last quarter epoch or so, now they were going to be _all right_ ... like they should've been in the first place ...

Yeah! Dream on, Skywarp! It only goes to show you how wrong you can be.

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_Thank you for reading. A :-)_

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	2. Chapter 1 Day 1, Earth, Skywarp

**== RECONCILIATION ==**

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**Chapter 1. Earth: Day 1 **

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_Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters or concepts within. I make no money from this story or any other about Transformers._

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This is right at the start of the first ever G1 episode

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_Warning__: Implied slash, adult themes, course language_

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**Author: Designation Skywarp. **

**Elite Aerial Combat Unit. **

**Position: Second in Command**

_(and – I didn't know it then, but these other notes said – "Seeker; of exceptional ability, but is impulsive and lacks initiative. May possibly assume leadership of the EAC prior to departure from Earth, but probable replacement with B Squadron second Ramjet. Operations to be closely monitored")_

It began on Earth with the weirdest cycle of my whole life.

First, there was waking up in the Ark and seeing all those smashed up cons and bots and bits and pieces and body parts everywhere in the half light, and the Ark all cold and silent and musty like. After all the situations I've gotten into in my life – and I've seen some sights, I can tell ya - that would have to be one of the worst. You can't imagine how scary it was! Like landing up in Kell. And I couldn't remember at first what had happened and I thought I was gonna be the only one awake, and that I wouldn't be able to get out , and now I'd have to put up with - that _sight _- for ever and ever. I remember thinking "why me?" Surely I hadn't done stuff that was that bad as to deserve this.

But then I calmed myself and I thought it through, even though I'm not the best at doing that. And I realised what had gone down, and what I had to do, and even though I still had to really control myself to not just completely freak out and to get Megatron under Teletran's beam, I managed it. Then he was online, and then they were all online, and it was all right. 'Specially for me. I was real in favour. Cos it was me that had gotten Megatron online.

Not that the praise was exactly rained on me for very long over that. Cos straight away it started between Screamer and Megatron.

"Let's just blow the scrap out of them ..."

"We will not "blow the scrap out of them", Starscream!"

"And might I ask, _why not_, Leader?"

"Because I say we will not!"

"An _insufficiently compelling justification_, Megatron" at which point he raised his weapon and was about to fire, but Megatron slapped it down.

"I will give the orders here, Starscream" he roared, and his voice echoed around the silent Ark with a metallic ring which was kinda chilling to the core. "It would be a waste of energy to do so! Besides ..." he cast around "...let the Autobots lie here in their grisly tomb, disabled, destroyed as a reminder to all who may think otherwise not to challenge the might of the Decepticons!"

Personally, at the time, I agreed with Screamer. I thought we should. I mean, it stood to reason, didn't it? What Megatron said was scrap, really. I mean, who was gonna see them? It was just Megatron wanting to show who was boss right from the start. And it was pretty obvious that was how it was gonna be and I guess that should have been the first thing that told me things weren't exactly gonna go smoothly in this place.

"Skywarp!" I jumped "er – yeah, Megatron. I could address him like that, see. A lot of the others wouldn't have got away with it, but I could.

"Are all the Autobots who were present when we left Cybertron accounted for in their – _chamber of doom?_"

How the frag was I supposed to know? There were bits and parts all over the shop. But it wouldn't do to fall out with Megatron at this early stage in the proceedings, and so I said "Er – yeah! All present and accounted for, Megatron!"

"Splendid!" He flashed a smile in my direction. I guessed I was still the star. "Then we shall proceed upon our mission to conquer this planet, and ... _the Universe!"_

There was a sort of muttering. I have to say, it was not exactly the sort of roar that used to go up when he made one of his speeches in the early days of the Cause, but it seemed to please him enough. He turned and started to move out of the Ark past the ghostly scene towards the glow which I guessed was the entrance.

"Very astute powers of observation, Warp" I heard TC mutter beside me as we made our way into the outside world.

"Shut up!" I sniped at him. I'd just been to Kell and back and I was still trying to recover and I really didn't have time for smart remarks, from him or anyone else. I decided right there and then that whatever else happened here, I wasn't gonna take any pit off him or anybody.

.............

_Earth_. We soon had first hand experience of it. A lot of canyons and gravel and stones and rock outcrops. They stood out in the light of the single sun which was just showing itself over the horizon, making long shadows as we crunched across the surface. In some ways it reminded me of the lower ramparts of the Iron Mountains back on Cybertron, that range behind where Iacon used to be that seemed to go on forever. But the Iron Mountains weren't covered with sqidgy vegetation and didn't have heaps of organic critters crawling all over them. And the bigger creatures running around; and the birds. A bit of Cyberfauna, maybe, but not the amount of live things that my sensors could detect.

I remember thinking _how could there be so many_, and that there couldn't be anything intelligent out there, or it would have got rid of a lot of it like we did on Cybertron. Then I remembered that I had an alt mode and that although it was primitive by our standards - my adaptation sequencers were right then in the process of converting it to Cybertronian technology - obviously, _something _with intelligence had pieced it together. And even though I hadn't tried it out yet I knew that it had a really good power to weight ratio and would be fast and very powerful, and that there would be like a compartment on top as though it were meant for_ something_ to travel in. It was kind of a creepy feeling, that. But I didn't think about it too much right then. I thought instead that it seemed all right. Sleek and good looking and Just the way I liked to be. So I tried to concentrate on what we were supposed to be doing because, after all, hopefully I wouldn't be around here long enough to find out too much more.

That day went on forever. We spent most of it trudging in search of we didn't know what and not finding it. In the meantime, sand and bugs got into everywhere and all we wanted to do was stop and have a good hose down, but there was nowhere to do that. No water. Nothing, in fact. Except the desert and the critters. And that infernal sun rose high in the sky and it was beating down and for a yellow star it was fraggin' hot and I could feel little cracks forming on my exoskin.

Oh, it was a real happy crew! Megatron was striding out ahead so as how we could hardly keep up with him, and Screamer was stomping along behind. Then just in front of me there was Soundwave lumbering along and saying nothing and TC trudging along next to me and saying nothing, and then behind us came the triplets and they did nothing but whinge about absolutely everything – the heat, the sand, how tired they were, their aches and pains - as if we didn't already know and weren't suffering ourselves!. About the only positive was the cassettes being inside Soundwave so we didn't have to put up with them, but then I was kind of jealous that they were in there getting a ride and not having to put up with what we were having to put up with.

Megatron and Screamer weren't talking, on account of the fact that Screamer had gone back and blown something up back where the Ark was. Megatron was mighty pissed about it, not because he actually did it, I thought, but because Megatron had said not to do it. I was pretty much starting to get the picture as to what things were like between those two now. They'd been bad for a long time, but had got a lot worse and I gathered TC was somehow bound up in it as well, cos he was a real misery. I hadn't seen them for a while before we left, see, cos Megatron had decided that I should have a break from Mordac and I'd been in the provinces on surveillance - not that it was much better than Mordac but at least it was different – and so whatever had been happening had been happening without me in the picture.

We just kept trudging, crunching along, and then TC started; grumbling about how we should be allowed to go into alt mode and what were we gonna do if some species showed up and we hadn't even tested it out and I mean, hey – I agreed – but what in Kell was I supposed to do about it? Megatron had said we were to go on foot. Besides that, it kinda pissed me off: his attitude. I mean, I hadn't seen him in what – how long? And I'd been kind of hoping he'd be a bit more – well, _easy to get along with_ than this.

So I said: "well you get up front there TC and say that to him then!" and he said: "why can't you?" and I said: "why should I?" and he said: "cos he listens to you, Warp, he don't listen to me" and that was true but I still didn't see why I should have to do it and I said: "well I wouldn't know, would I cos you won't get off yer fraggin' aft and find out ... nothing's changed has it?" and he turned to me then and snarled: "Just fraggin' forget it!" and then – yeah, well, I was tempted to go and ask but I still didn't see why I should so I didn't. But I remember thinking _oh yeah, this is gonna be just great ..._

Then from behind us Viewfinder yelled out "Why should you ..."

Then Spyglass " ... get to do that when we have to..."

Then Spectra: " ...grovel along in the dirt.

Finishing off the sentence for each other in that really annoying way that they do sometimes, even though they don't have to.

Then Screamer turned around and said "because we, Viewfinder, are the Elite Air Command and you would do well to observe your place and _demonstrate some respect_."

And all the triplets yelled out in unison - which is also what they do sometimes, even though they don't have to do that either - : "You couldn't command a nest full of Turbohawks ..."

And Screamer turned around then and came back round behind Soundwave, who just went lumbering on behind Megatron, and then we all three Seekers stopped and turned and Screamer snapped: "I believe a little lesson in _respect _might be in order," and TC and me stopped as well, and so did the Triplets.

I said "yeah, I agree .." cos Views was out of order and anyway I felt like taking something out on someone now. Screamer started to move towards them and Viewfinder said "all right, come on then, _hot shot_..." and pulled out a gun and Spectra looked annoyed and said "oh for frag's sake" and Spyglass just looked worried. I said "you're a regular little hero aren't you ya stupid little cogsucker .." cos by then I really wasn't in a very good mood.

Then TC grabbed my arm and said: "now look, cool it you lot! We ougtta be saving our energy.." and I yelled at him: "oh yeah that's right ain't it TC. Just let yerself get pit put all over ya! Just like y'always do ..."

"S-I-L-E-N-C-E!!" Megatron's voice exploded across the canyon.

He and Soundwave had stopped and come back and Megatron's optics were scanning around, boring into each of us in turn, and Soundwave was just standing there with no expression, like he always did, but you could feel he was sifting through everyone's neural circuits, sussing out the situation. We all froze. The fusion canon was well and truly attached to Megatron's arm and he had _that look_ on his face that you didn't mess with.

"_I will not tolerate this inane bickering! Now start looking for raw materials, as I have ordered you to do_!" He eyed off every single one of us in turn and there was not anyone there that didn't look nervously at that canon. Including me.

He relaxed, as he generally does when he realises he's generated an OK level of fear.

"We need to remain calm," he said smoothly, "and to remember who we are. "Now...." and his vocaliser cranked up again, "_Start acting like Decepticons!_"

It was a fairly rote exchange. The trudging started up again with everyone back in their old positions and this time we were all quiet.

Then, finally, as the sun was dipping in the sky - which was colourful, I recall, cos of Earth's atmosphere - Soundwave spotted some metal structure near a cliff which seemed to be deserted, and then we stopped. By then it was almost dark and we didn't have means of generating light and since this _Earth_ only had one sun, we calculated it would be a while before the sky got light again. Megatron decided we should recharge and that the next day we were gonna total the metal structure and use the steel to make a new spacecruiser. Everyone got a bit more cheerful when he said that. Especially me and TC, cos it meant we got to test out our alt modes first thing, and then do the totalling, which was about the most OK prospect out of anything that had happened so far. Everyone was really tired by then, and so there was still a bit of whingeing and stuff going on but on the whole everyone just wanted to forget about the day and the situation we were in and get some recharge.

Then Megatron and Soundwave and Starscream sat down on some rocks and Soundwave drew a datapad out of somewhere and starting intoning stuff and they were all talking, although you could see Megatron was still pissed at Screamer and he snapped at him every time he opened his mouth. TC and I decided to leave them to it and we went and lay down a little way aways from the rest of the camp, around behind this rock outcrop. And then I suddenly felt real tired and like it had been a hard first day and we were here on this planet the other side of the Universe from Cybertron. It was getting cold, and I felt kind of lonely, so I said "TC, I don't suppose you feel like ... you know ..."

He looked at me and it just seemed like he was real sort of cool towards me. "Are you kidding? he said. "Here? In this situation? Get outta your dreams, Warp! Now get some recharge, whilst we got the chance. We got a big day tomorrow."

"Fine!" I said, even though it wasn't, and I felt suddenly really pissed off with everything again.

I lay back. But I didn't recharge for a very long time.


	3. Chapter 2 Day 1, Earth, Mirage

**== Reconciliation ==**

**Chapter 2: Day 1 Earth (contd.)**

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_Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to any characters from Transformers, or any themes or places or scenes therein. All these belong to Hasbro/IDW and I make no money from this work. The concept of "Utopia" belongs to Aldhous Huxley_

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The Autobots are not 100% virtuous and Mirage struggles constantly in the dynamics of his relationship with them.

Apologies to Ratchet and Wheeljack fans for this. They're not really that bad! They've got their own reasons for feeling this way and all of this is from Mirage's point of view :-)

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_Warnings: Violence, implied "death"_

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**Author:** **Designation Mirage. **

**Autobot Special Operations Team. **

**Position: Intelligence Officer**

(_and – had I known it at the time – Prowl had these notes - Alpha Caste mechanism. On secondment from refugee effort on Itopis. Presence is of political significance. Allegiance questionable. Operations to be monitored, and restricted)_

I had no recollection of the first day on Earth.

In fact, it was nearly the case that I never got to experience Earth at all, or any of the strange events which unfolded on the planet's surface. For when the Ark finally crashed, out of control, into Mount St Hilary following its bombardment by asteroids and then its attack from the Decepticons, I fared worse than anybody else.

It wasn't that my injuries were physically bad. According to the medics, apart from a few dints and losing part of one hand I had hardly a mark upon me. But a blow to the head disconnected my central processing unit from the rest of me, including my spark and I was, as a result, pronounced clinically deactivated. Desparked. Out of this realm, or so it was thought, and away to join Primus in the Realm of Eternal Illumination – or perhaps, some may have speculated, to burn in the fires of Kell. But dead, anyway.

But it was not to be. Primus – or whoever - had other ideas . Maybe He thought my departure would be too easy, or perhaps He wanted to be entertained by the events which afterwards unfolded. Or maybe the Realm of Eternal Illumination had reached its quota. Whatever the case, I came back online again, to the astonishment of the medics, who were did not immediately realise this and were not expecting it, which is why ordinarily I am sure that they would have been far more careful about having the conversation which I so unfortunately overheard.

Just before I heard their voices, I can remember being aware of my spark pulsing and a heat spreading slowly through my circuits as various systems came on line. My energon pump had not yet activated; I could see nothing, and I could not move; but my audial circuits were evidently fully functional and there was the sound of movement and of clattering and clanging, as though metal objects were being moved around. I had a vague memory of having been somewhere outside in a place which was not Cybertron, and I remember that was confusing, so I did not dwell on it, but tried instead to work out where I was.

I became aware, then, that I was lying on a hard cold metal surface, which felt like an operating table. My processes froze for an instant, seeming to recall another time when I had come to like this and the situation had been most terrible, and for a moment there I was very afraid.

But then, a voice said: "Y'know, it's kinda weird, Ratch. I thought the Utopians programmed these Alphas tougher than this ... figured they had to seeing as how when they ran the show on Cybertron everyone else was pretty much dependent on 'em for survival. I woulda thought there woulda been some kind of stasis override mechanism...."

And then I knew exactly where I was, and I relaxed. I was in one of Ratchet's medlabs. And it came back to me in a rush that I had come on a mission with the Autobots on the Ark, and that we had had a tangle with the Decepticons, and we had been going to crash. I presumed that we had, indeed, crashed and that I had been injured, and that the Autobots had now, somehow, found a way back to Cybertron. I remember wondering vaguely what had happened to the 'Cons. But I felt very weak and mainly it was just good to be in that medbay, and although I could hardly pretend that the medic was one of my favourites, or I one of his, or that this was the greatest situation in the universe in which I could have wound up, I heaved an inward sigh of relief.

But not for long.

"Yeah, me too, Jack!" another all too familiar voice was saying. "But y'know these Alphas may still think their sump oil don't stink, but when they ain't springin' around and carrying on all that fancy stuff they're pretty fragile in a lotta ways. Don't know how he woulda worked out on this planet. Coulda been a bit crude for his delicate constitution ..."

My spark gave an unpleasant jolt. So we weren't back on Cybertron. Where, then, were we? Had we made it to wherever it was we were headed in the first place? Or had we maybe made an emergency landing somewhere else? Wherever we were, however, one thing was painfully clear: the medic's attitude had not changed; he was being as racist about the Alpha Caste as he always had been, and at the realisation of the full implications of the situation, dismay and indignance ricocheted through my mood indicators.

"Still, he was a pretty slick operator, Ratch. Good with that device. Coulda been useful to have him around down here..."

"Oh I dunno about that Jack. I don't know how much Prime was actually gonna let him do. Very political it was, bringin' him here. Sends a message we ain't leaving the Alphas outta the equation..."

This was an equally depressing revelation, if not a terribly surprising one. However, something even more uncomfortable was creeping into my awareness. _Why were they talking about me in the past tense? _Was I so injured that I was going to be out of action for a while? In my dazed state, I assumed this must be it_. _The notion depressed me further.

" ..... besides which, he wasn't exactly risk free, Jack ..."

"Oh I dunno Ratch. He got paid. Did the job. Never sold out on us as far as we know. And he did a lot of useful things for the Autobots over the vorns ..."

"Yeah, right! And some not so useful things too ...."

My newly awakened spirits descended further. This was just so much how it had been with the Autobots for as long as I could remember. This was why I never stuck with them for longer than I had to. Well if this was how it was going to be then this time would be no exception. _Why did they not come over here and finish fixing me_? Because, out of action or not, when they had I was getting the Kell out of there.

There was more clanging and a sound as of equipment being moved around the room. Then a noise which sounded like objects being put on a metal tray. _They must be going to operate_, I thought.

"I wouldn't question Prime on most of his decisions," Rachet was saying. "But bringin' Mirage here ... Ironhide wasn't happy, I'm tellin' ya ..."

_That would be right_. I thought furiously. Ironhide had been around since the days of the Imperial guard and he never tired of rubbing in the fact that the likes of him had risen to greater things under the Equilibrium and then with the Utopians. It was an embarrassment that I often upstaged him in single combat, the "idle rich brat" who in days gone by he would have had to protect.

" guess so. An' this woulda been real hard on Prowl an'Jazz ..."

"Oh yes. They were bonded." I wanted to grit my dental plates but, of course, I couldn't do that either. Hard on _them_? What about hard on me. It was Jazz who had left our relationship. Not my choice. I was the one who was no doubt going to have to view the evidence of their "bonding" once I was fully online. They'd seemed ecstatic about it before we left Cybertron. Even though the Jazz and Mirage item was a while ago now, the prospect still hurt.

I thought_ Get over here and finish whatever you still have to do so that I can get the frag out of here and I won't have to listen to this scrap any more. _I'm not a great one for swearing outwardly. But I do inside my head. A lot.

It was all taking just far too long. I made a really concerted effort to shift and found I could not. I did, however, feel my energon pump slowly come to life and begin to beat, softly. Why couldn't they hurry up? I might not be number one on their popularity list, but I was a _patient_, wasn't I?"

The movements and clattering came to an end and there was the sound of a chair being moved and of someone sitting down heavily. Wheeljack's voice: "well, I think we're just about set, Ratch. Just waitin' for Prime now." _Why_, I thought. _Why does Prime have to be privy to an operation. He isn't a medic..._ My annoyance increased.

The engineer was talking again. "He used to be loaded, y'know Ratch. The sorta money you n' I could only ever dream about! His place at the Towers. You shoulda seen it, Ratch! And the Sky City joint ..."

"Yeah" the medics voice came from the other side of the room. I heard a cupboard door open and close and the sound of something clinking. "Well it got handed to him on a silver platter didn't it. Creators left it to him. Then there was that bond mate. Now she was _really_ loaded, if you know what I mean.... here, have this ..."

Now I wanted to move, and sit up, and knock the cube of energon which he had presumably just had put in his hand out of it and say "that is so untrue, and you know it!" I had no first hand memory of that time on Cybertron before the war. I did, however, know enough about it to know that the credits from my deceased creators estate had helped, but that a lot of my achievements were down to sheer hard work. That would have to have been so, because that was how I was. I simply didn't hitch rides on others tailshafts - unless they were enemies. Anyway, it was all gone now, wasn't it?

"... at least he won't be wanting no special privileges now ...."

That was the last pipe! During the times I had worked for the Autobots, I didn't believe myself entitled to special treatment and had never expected it.

If only I could move. I searched every system to try and find a mechanism whereby I could do so, but to no avail.

There was the sound of footsteps crossing to the other side of the room. "Y'know I think we oughta test this thing, Jack, before Prime gets here. "I kinda didn't expect to have to use it so soon ...."

"OK Ratch! Fire her up ...."

There came a dull click, followed by a roar. Then there was the sound of metal making contact with metal and a screeching, graunching sound, followed by something falling on the floor with a clang. "Looks fine to me, Jack. Just have to hope it's the last time we do have to use it for a while ..."

And then, with a horrible, sickening lurch in my spark, I knew. It was a dismemberment saw. They were going to take me apart. No doubt for presentation to the ineffective so called "Alpha Council" once we got back to Cybertron. This was protocol when offline situations happened on outer worlds. They were just waiting for Prime to come and sign the papers.

Panic swept wildly through every system. Quickly followed by disbelief. Surely to Primus this couldn't be happening? But then I relaxed. I thought: Be logical, Mirage. They must have only thought you were offline. They'll realise soon and it will be all right. But _what if they didn't realise_? What if they didn't _want _to realise? Panic struck again. I had to do something ....

The saw noise was extinguished and there was another clang as it was evidently replaced, then of footsteps approaching the table. "Y'know its kinda a waste, Ratch. He always was a looker, this one ..."

"Yeah! Half the Decepticons thought so too ..."

_Please, please_ I thought desperately. Notice. _Something!_ I tried to move again and couldn't; tried to open my optics but they were shuttered tight.

"Y'know, Ratch, we could save ourselves a bit of time here. Prime only has to sign for the core systems disconnection. Why don't we take off a few limbs while we wait?"

"Good suggestion, Jack! Why, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get down to the rec room. Sunny still owes me a game of _Search n'Destroy_ ..."

Sick horror flooded my whole awareness. Blackness closed around me. The universe winked out.

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_Thank you for reading. I won't keep you in suspense for too long!!_


	4. Chapter 3 Night 1, Earth, Skywarp

**== Reconciliation =**

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**Chapter 3. Earth: Night 1**

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_Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters or concepts within. I make no money from this story or any other about Transformers._

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This is pretty emotional/angst/drama. With a touch of fluff.

Seeker devotees, I hope you like it!

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_Warning__: Implied slash, adult themes, course language_

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**Author: Designation Skywarp. Elite Aerial Combat Unit. Position: Second in Command**

**Location: Earth. First Dark Cycle.**

It was impossible to recharge.

Apart from anything else, it was all so – _alien._

I remember the scene well. The one Earth moon was high up in the sky. It was shining very brightly, and it made the desert floor and the rocks and the bushes either glow in a weird, silvery light or be in shadow. It was eerie. _Creepy._ I remember thinking there was no light from any of the moons of Cybertron that was ever quite like that.

Coming from the main camp, behind the rock outcrop, an argument was going on. I couldn't make out the whole conversation but every now and then Starscream's unmistakeable vocaliser could be heard shouting things like: " ... Autobots ...," " ... dead now ... " " ... if it wasn't for me ...," and Megatron's equally unforgettable one could be heard yelling things like: " ... fool ...," " ... waste of energy ...," "... damned well do what I say ..." I remember that the sounds came floating through the night air, and that every now and then I could hear Soundwave intoning things as well.

I remember turning over on my back and flattening my wings underneath me and trying to filter the sounds out of my audials and get comfortable. It wasn't exactly an easy proposition. There was grit in seams and cracks I'd hardly known existed which had got in there during the day's march and they were itching and irritating. The ground was really uneven and I had rocks and bits of Primus alone knew what else sticking in me everywhere. And there were all these strange noises: Earth creatures calling out and bugs clicking and cracking and things creaking in the ground and the rocks. And it was cold. Freezing! My internal heating system had kicked in and I could feel a light condensation forming on my exoskin.

And there was something else too; a faint smell in the air, a burning smell, and it was vaguely familiar in a disturbing sort of a way but somehow I just couldn't quite get my circuits around exactly what it was.

Ravage kept slinking past. In some ways that was reassuring. We didn't exactly know a lot about that place and anything could have been out there; and I knew she'd be doing a sweep and would pick up any problem right away. But she was passing very close. _Too _close. I remember thinking that there was absolutely no need for that cat to be passing that close and that it was just another indication of how Soundwave and his mob just could not mind their own slagging business, and how when we got back to Cybertron and did whatever we were going to be able to do as a result of what we were going to get from here then I wasn't ever going to have anything to do with him or any of his miserable creations ever again. I remember fastening on that thought train, in fact. It meant I didn't think so much about the rest.

Beside me, TC was really restless; he kept turning over and grunting and sighing. It was making things just that bit worse, because his body moving around like that and the noise of it scraping on the gravel and his wings rustling made me uncomfortably aware of the fact that I hadn't connected to him, or anyone else, or had an overload for two million or so vorns; and I remember thinking: _and that is a fraggin' long time. _

I remember he was still for a moment, and his back was to me, and I looked at him lying there in the moonlight, intakes hissing away, and I thought how long it was since I'd seen him, and I really wished he hadn't said no to me earlier. I thought about making the offer again, but then I thought _no, you knocked it back before and damned if you're gonna get the chance again. _He would come to me for it anyway before too always did.I made a great effort to divert any thought pathways connected to that sort of thing elsewhere – at least for the time being.

I remember then that again from away in the main camp there was a noise like something falling, and I heard Soundwave mutter something and then there was a squeak that sounded like it came out of Frenzy's vocaliser. Then there was a rustle and a flapping nearby and it sounded like something winged took off into the night and then TC shifted again and the bugs clacked and then the cat went past again – even closer; then the sound of Megatron yelling some more, words like " ... _I have reached the end of my tether Starscream ..._"

.... and I could stand it no longer.

I let out a sigh and propped my hands behind my head. Crossing my legs I said in a loud voice into the night air: "Well there's nothing like a peaceful dark cycle on a weird alien world on the other side of the universe, huh TC?" My vocaliser sounded strange as it echoed off the rocks.

TC stirred again. He heaved himself over to face me, crunching gravel and the noise of stones scattering as he did it. He lay there looking at me for a moment and I can I remember thinking his expression was _odd_ – like, I couldn't read it and that I felt puzzled about that. Then from the other side of the camp there was more shouting – something like: " ... _incompetent idiot_ ..._!_" from Screamer's vocaliser; then a thump and a bang and a noise of metal making contact with metal followed by a loud crash and Screamer's vocaliser screeching "... _afthole_ ..._!_"

A pained look came on to TC's face then and he shuttered his optics for a moment and gave a little shudder. Then when he reopened them he sighed and propped himself up on one elbow and looked straight at me. "Actually, Warp," he said, "we need to talk."

I remember thinking: _Well that's great!_ _You won't do anything with me that might make us able to put up with this pit, but you want me to have a flamin' conversation with ya!_ I remember laying there with my hands behind my head and looking away from him and staring at that inky sky and the stars and the moon. "About what?" I know I spat it out.

He was still propped up there and he said: "Warp. The – arrangement. You an' me an' Starscream. The point is - it ain't workin' out too well no more ... is it?"

I remember thinking: _what a slaggin' stupid statement! How can it be "working out" when I haven't even been near them in I don't know how long_? The Provinces were, after all, a long way from Kaon.

I said "Yeah. I'd say lately it ain't been workin' out at all, TC. Largely on account of the fact that until we got on that cruiser, I hadn't seen either of you for about a hundred vorns ..."

Somewhere in the night some creature made a howling noise. There were voices in the background again from the other side of the camp, but they had gone down to normal levels. Somewhere else, I thought I could hear somebody sobbing somewhere and I remember thinking _and now the slagging triplets are at it – that's all we need .._.

I remember TC sat up then and that the moonlight was shining off his wingtips. He looked at me again and he said: "That's not what I mean, Warp. I'm talking about - before that. Before you left Kaon. For quite a while before that; actually ... "

...................

I should explain. You see, TC and I were kind of like - an item - for I don't know how long. Not that it was ever just him; but he was the only one I used to come back to on a regular basis. Him and – well, there was Screamer, too. I used to go with him a lot as well. And TC – yeah, well - he also had Screamer sometimes too.

It wasn't as complicated as it sounds. You see, Screamer was always kind of like two personalities. One was full of all these schemes and strategies – and as an air commander, he was _brilliant _– and he'd be right up there on a high thinking them up and buzzing around and talking about how he was gonna put them into action; then we'd go out and bomb the scrap out of somewhere and then he'd be really up there. But the other Screamer – that was the one that kicked in when the schemes and strategies didn't come off - that one was the opposite. That one was right down there and depressed and like in a really dark space.

TC and I sort of had the thing with the two different Screamers. And, as you can probably guess, when he was on an upper, it was him and me that used to hang together. TC got the other one. The one in the dark space. It was like when everything went to Kell, Screamer needed him for comfort. Now that sort of stuff was hardly my forte! And I wouldn't have wanted that with Screamer anyway. Cos I had the most amazing experiences with him – wild sessions and flying and drunken times and the best connects and overloads ever, when he was high. And I was more than happy with that.

When Screamer was in between "highs" and "lows", or wasn't around, or my and TC's units got assigned somewhere together, then we two would hook up. We never talked about Screamer that much. We just sort of accepted that at some stage things would change and then one or the other of us would go off with him again. But there was no problem with that. All in all, it worked out very well.

But it did change in the vorns before we came to Earth. More like, _Screamer_ changed. He didn't seem to have highs and lows as such any more. He went really weird. I can only describe it as being like a half crazed state which was some place between anger and hysteria. He got obsessed with Megatron, and what he reckoned was Megatron's incompetence in not getting the Cause on track. What Megatron did, thought and said seemed to take up his whole life. He reckoned he could do a better job than Megatron - and he started coming out with all this crazy stuff – schemes to take over and lead the 'Cons. One time I might have gone along with it; but the trouble was, most of this stuff was so off the wall that, quite frankly, it was a relief when Megatron put the kybosh on it.

That was when Megatron started putting him in his place in a way that was, I admit, pretty heavy handed. But a lot of the time I could see his point.

Screamer took it out on us. It was like everything Megatron put on him, he put on us. Well, I was damned if I was gonna put up with that, and I told him where to get off. I've always been straight up with Screamer. But TC put up with it. Yeah – even though Screamer was awful to him a lot of the time, TC was full of excuses for Screamer and he wanted to spend all his time with him; And Screamer seemed to need him and when the two of them weren't with each other they were both in a foul mood - and neither wanted to hang out with me. So, all in all, for a while there I didn't really spend much time with either of them.

To be honest, I was pretty jacked off with them both. But then I got sent to the Provinces and there was – let's just say - other entertainment - there, so I didn't really think about it too much. I just assumed that Screamer would get through this and everything would go back the way it used to be. But now TC was saying this I had to admit that it hadn't. In fact, if anything, things were worse. And so, no, the "arrangement," as he put it, wasn't _working out._ And I also realised that it was, in fact, what I was so jacked off about here on Earth.

..................

I said: "Well, TC, if you're referring to the fact that back on Cybertron you two just about had to be prised apart the whole fraggin' time then I guess that's so ain't it?"

At that moment, there was another loud noise from the direction of the leaders area and I heard Screamer yell something like "_it won't work, I'm telling yo_u ..." and the sound of Megatron yelling "_you know, you just can't help yourself, can you ... _"

TC winced again. I said: "I'm surprised you ain't over there now holding his hand!"

Now TC was looking at me very intensely and he was saying: "Don't make light of it, Warp. He's – not been well. He needs me ..."

And now I thought about it, the way TC handled the whole situation really jacked me off as well. This treating of Starscream like a sparkling. It seemed to make Screamer come out with even more crazy things. And, from what I could see, it made the situation with Megatron even worse.

I sat up. I said "For Primus sake TC, he's a grown Seeker! You're not his damned sparkling carer. He brings a lot of it on himself. It's his choice to carry on like a half witted turbohawk!"

Frankly, I'd thought, back on Cybertron, that Screamer would have been much better off coming out with me and me giving him some good premium grade and a good frag and telling him not to be such a friggin' idiot. Besides which, in the past when we'd been busy with that, it had kept him out of Megatron's circuitry.

From across the camp I thought I could still hear the faint sobbing and I could vaguely hear Soundwave intoning something. Then there was the sound of Screamer saying something I could not decipher and Megatron's vocaliser rang out: "... _no - that is my final word_ ..." And it obviously was, because after that there were a few noises which sounded like stuff being moved around, but then, apart from the bugs still clicking here and there, it was silent. A short way away a dark shape slunk past, paused and moved on. Red optics burned in the darkness.

"Yeah, keep going Ravage!" I said. That was the last thing we needed right then. "I hate that cat," I said.

"Don't change the subject, Warp!" I remember TC was just sitting there in the Earth moon light and he looked at me again with that unreadable look, and then he looked away and his intakes gave a huge sigh.

I remember I laid back and said "Oh come on TC! I'm not going down this path. You know how I feel. Frankly it would be better if ya just backed off a bit. Let Screamer work things out for himself."

And that was when he said it.

"I can't. _I love him Warp!_"

And that was when the energon froze in my circuits and my neural functions literally glitched and stopped functioning for a few astroseconds; that was when it was like my spark lurched in my chest and the whole weird Earth scene was suddenly gone because it was as though the universe stopped. I sat up again.

"_WHAT...._?" there was nothing else to say.

He said it again. "_I love him_."

My energon pump missed a beat then, but then I steadied it. Because, no, I surely couldn't be hearing this right. You see, that was the one thing that had just never come into the whole set up with us. I mean, I loved _hanging with_ Screamer cos I just had the best times with him that I ever had with anyone. And TC – yeah, well he was kind of like – my _best friend_.

But _love?_ No way! I'd only ever felt that once – or thought I had – and it had hurt so much that I'd spent vorns getting it out of my memory banks. And that was exactly what had always been so good about the whole thing with Screamer and TC. No going down that path again. No _love _stuff. No hurt. Just good fun and wingmateship.

So I said "Are my audials malfunctioning or did I just hear ya say the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever heard in my entire existence?"

I remember some Earth thing cried out into the night then and it made me jump, and TC started, but I was aware of the cat passing again, not so close this time, and I relaxed. Then TC got up and walked slowly across to a nearby rock, and he sat down and folded his arms and looked at the ground. The moon was that bright, I could see him quite clearly. He had that _stubborn _look on his face, the one he got when he was determined something was going to be a particular way and there was no talking him out of it. TC's more easy going than me in a lot of ways, you see, but when he really makes his mind up, that's pretty much it.

He said. "I can't stand to see what's happening to him, Skywarp. I'm afraid for him. And no, your audials ain't malfunctioning, you heard right. I love him."

Again my circuits froze, although not as completely as they had that first time. Then I relaxed. Obviously this was ridiculous. _Stress_, it must be. Yeah, that was it. The stress of being deactivated for all those vorns. And before that, the war and then coming to this place on short notice and getting fragged up on the way. Yes, it was enough to make anyone go a bit over the edge, I thought.

I decided to humour him. Getting to my feet, I said: "so, uh – so when did ya have this particular revelation, TC?"

He looked at me then and he said: "_I've always loved him, Skywarp_...."

And before I could even think about the implications of that or say anything else, he went on: "When this is over and we're back on Cybertron, he and I are leaving the Cause. I'm gonna take him away from all of this, and we're gonna have a new beginning."

Now this was too much. I mean, TC had always had doubts about the Cause. That was no secret to anyone. It was no real secret either that there'd been times when he'd only stayed in it because of us two, and I don't think anyone would ever have been that surprised to see him go.

But _Starscream _leave the Cause? Unthinkable! Whatever else, Screamer was committed to the Decepticons. He may have been, like me, a bit jacked off that the Cause hadn't done what it set out to do, and he certainly blamed Megatron for that. But _leave_ it? No way! He persisted with these plans to _lead _it, for Primus sake.

And at that point something snapped within me and the whole thing just suddenly seemed completely ludicrous. I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing.

I said "Yeah, right! Does Screamer know about all this?"

But TC was not laughing. His face came over all dark and furious then, like it did when he ran out of ammo on the battlefield or that yellow twin showed up or he got his aft shot up and it was someone else's fault. He glared at me. "Of course!" he snapped. "We've been talking about it for a long time now!"

He was sitting there on that rock with the Earth moonlight gleaming off his surfaces and his wings fanned out behind him and his optics were glowing bright red. And I remember nothing else about that moment except the expression on his face as he was looking at me and I know that I suddenly didn't think it was funny after all; and a sort of chill went through my circuits then because it was like a small voice was saying _Kell, he really means this pit ...._

But I still refused to believe it.

Apart from anything else, it was _impractical_ for Primus sake! How could they make a _new start _on Cybertron away from Megatron? He'd track them down, wherever they went; they'd never get away with it. Besides which, the place was _fragged._ There was nowhere to go – unless you wanted to live out in the Iron Hills or somewhere and scavenge turbo rats for the rest of your existence. All right, things might get better when we got back, but it would take a while, and in the meantime – well, somehow I just couldn't really see Screamer doing that.

I said "So – and where is this happy new partnership gonna take itself?"

TC was still looking at me as though daring me to even think about not taking this seriously. "Icthea," he said.

Now this was getting really stupid. Icthea. Second world in the Alpha Cetauri system. Oh it was liveable on once – in fact, we Seekers had lived on it long ago when we were Ictheans and before we were assimilated on Cybertron into Seekers. But there was nothing there now. The place had got fragged up when they took the resources off it and it had been nothing for aeons but a useless rock.

TC got up and paced a little way, his feet making crunching sounds. "It's our ancestral home," he said, and I saw that he had that _I've made up my mind_ look again. He said: "There ain't much there but there's enough to survive. Besides, we Seekers have always had – problems. We dunno who we are, Warp. That's why Starscream and I are gonna go and find out. It will help him.. ..."

And now I fancied I knew what this was really about. You see, Icthea never interested me – I mean, why would it? I didn't remember it and I've already said how long it took Seekers – on account of their ex organicness - to get any respect at all on Cybertron. It was really only because of the Cause that we ever did. But Icthea fascinated TC. Always had. And he'd always wanted to go there. And now, the way I saw it, he'd just given himself the perfect excuse. And this, obviously, was what was behind this other scrap.

And then, I was jacked off. Because – apart from anything else - _where was I in all this, their wing mate? _I rounded on him and I said "I don't suppose it might have occurred to you, _Thundercracker_, in your love struck state, to include me in your plans?"

He turned to me. He said "Warp, come on, there's no way you would wanna go to Icthea. And anyway, this ain't about you. It's about what's best for Starscream .."

And I was suddenly furious, and I can't really say that until that moment I ever felt really protective about Screamer, but all of a sudden I did ...

I fronted right up to him and I burst out: "_What a load of scrap_!" aware that my vocaliser was probably fully audible on the other side of the camp and that Soundwave's Inappropriate Emotional Response Detectors were probably already firing on all circuits. I remember vaguely a squawk and from somewhere nearby another winged thing flapped and took off. I yelled: "This ain't about Screamer! It's about you, TC! You're nothing but a selfish piece of pit!"

"Warp!" he said "Shut up ..."

But I couldn't. "Well, y'know what?" I yelled, "you can do what you fraggin' well like, TC! Go and hang out on a dead world lookin' for something that ain't there. _But don't drag him into it!_"

TC came up in front of me, then; his feet made heavy crunching sounds. He gleamed in the moonlight. He looked really pissed now, and I could see that his fists were clenched. His optics were blazing.

He looked straight at me. "Shut up Warp!" He said "_Shut up_!" and I remember it made me really wild and I so much wanted, right then, just to plant my fist firmly in the middle of his face. But there was something else now about his expression – he had the _I mean business _look. And TC's about the only Seeker that I can't beat on the ground when he's really riled, and even though I was so angry I knew that, and I knew that I couldn't transform and take off either seeing as how I hadn't tested the alt mode.

So I just stood there glaring at him, and I know that my intakes were really sucking in air fast and my pump was hammering, but I controlled myself. Because apart from anything else, there was still the thing, too, that _this just couldn't be real._ That it was all a bad recharge vision and I was going to wake up any moment with him grunting in recharge beside me.

The cat went past again then. I know that she paused, sized us up, and kept going. But I barely noticed.

He was still looking me straight in the optics. He said. "Now you listen, Warp, and you listen good! I've done my homework on Icthea. We can live there. It won't be the Iacon Towers, but we'll get by. _And don't you dare accuse me of draggin' him into nothin'! _I'm taking him out of a situation which is probably gonna kill him if he stays in it."

His optics were boring into me. And it was then that I thought: _this is just wrong ... _I didn't ever remember him being quite like this and it was like something started to cave inside me. He went on: "I care, Warp! You understand? That's the difference between you and me..." He took his optics off mine and turned away. "The only thing you ever wanted from Starscream was your own gratification... anyway ..., "he sighed "... in some ways this is doing you a favour. You always wanted the Command. Now you're gonna get it."

And that was when I thought _By Primus, he really does mean to do this thing,_ and it felt like things caved a bit more and there was a sort of icy horror and a chill went through my spark.

I know my thoughts spun and I felt dizzy and that I needed to sit down, and I remember making my way over to the rock TC had been sitting on before.

What he said about the Command was true. Sort of. But suddenly I - well, I didn't know whether I actually did want that. And suddenly I just felt – well I don't even know if I can describe it. Just – shocked and sick inside. Because it seemed now that things really had changed, and he did actually mean all this stuff; and then suddenly what that would mean dawned on me – that they would go away and I would never see either of them again, and that was just ...

I remember sitting down. And suddenly there were all these thoughts of _them _in my conscious pool, and most of all I was thinking of the times in the war when both of them had come close to dying and how awful that had been, and how even though 'Cons weren't supposed to cry I had sobbed and begged Primus to let them live. And he had, and I thought about how relieved I had been. Cos even if Screamer was a nutcase and TC was a miserable sod, they were just ... well, they were a part of my life. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be without them forever. I didn't want to imagine it.

And I did care about Screamer! TC had no right to say what he just said. I really cared about him and I wanted him to be all right just as much as TC did. I just had a different way of going about things, that was all. How dare TC just assume his way of dealing with it was better than my way of dealing with it? I could feel pressure then suddenly behind my optics. But I steeled myself. I thought. No I am not going to cry. _I am going to stop this happening. He is not going to do it. He is not going to do it because I am not going to let him take Screamer away from me, and whatever is going on with him, Screamer would not do this to me...._

And I made myself believe it. After all, Screamer was definitely not into all that love stuff any more than me. I knew him well enough to know that. I would prove that.

I said: "These feelings. This –_ love_. It's mutual, then?"

TC looked at me for a moment. "Yes..." he said, and then he hesitated: ".....we've been talking about a bond..." and then that was just like the last straw. And the way he said it, everything I just been thinking sort of dissolved and my intakes gave a little choke. And I remember my energon processing chamber lurched, and I thought I was going to regurgitate, and something just caved in completely.

It's funny what you remember. I could still hear the faint sobbing and I know it occurred to me then that it was an a sad, alien sound and did not sound like one of the Triplets. I know it crossed my thought pathways also that this could be an Earth creature out there, making that sound and that because of what I was feeling it affected me, and I felt connected to it in some way. But what TC had said was was basically blowing me apart so much that that I didn't pay it that much attention.

He had his back to me. I looked up at him; I said: "You don't know Starscream like I do, TC! He won't go, I'm tellin' ya! He wants the leadership. He'll never give up on that. Even if he dies trying..." and I was able to believe that, because I was sure it was true. I also knew, though, that TC would have an answer to it.

"Well I'm not gonna let that happen ...," he turned and I saw in his face that he was now very emotional. He looked at me and his optics glistened.

I could not look at him. I looked instead across away from the rock outcrop between us and the camp and in the other direction. There was no movement anywhere. The moon and the stars shone brightly and the structure we were going to destroy tomorrow shimmered in the distance. I remember that between us and the structure, there was a mist hanging in the air, and I just caught that faint aroma of burning. Sweet scented, it was. And I thought of all the times that Screamer and TC and me had had together and the things we'd done and it was suddenly too much to bear. I remember thinking_ I can't fly with you tomorrow, I don't care what Megatron says, _because right then I didn't know how I was even going to keep functioning here, let alone anything else, knowing that as soon as we left and got back to Cybertron I'd never ...

I could not think it. But I couldn't not think of it. And I couldn't help it. I started to weep.

TC was just standing there saying nothing, then. The only other thing I remember is that it was deathly quiet, and cold, and that the other sobbing seemed to have stopped at last.

TC said: "Skywarp .."

And I said "Shut the frag up, TC! Don't even talk to me ...."

And he said: "Look, Warp, I'm sorry I shouted. I knew how you were gonna feel about this. And I was hoping I could tell you sorta differently, I ... Oh frag it! I wasn't planning on coming out with it tonight," and his vocaliser sounded all choked. I remember just feeling angry and thinking _well why did you then?_

His com crackled then, and it sounded loud in the night air. Through it, Screamer's vocaliser said "_Thundercracker _...?" and it sounded tired and anxious. When I heard it, my spark gave another lurch inside my chest cavity and I just felt like everything collapsed inside and I just cried even more then.

I remember TC saying: "Yeah, hang in there, I'll be right over ..." and his voice sounded all soft and caring and at that moment my energon chamber gave another spasm and I very nearly did regurgitate. He clicked off the com.

He came and knelt down beside me and he said: "Warp, I have to go ..." and I looked up and saw that he still looked sad, but there was a look of something else about him now, of urgently needing to be somewhere else. It was sickening. He put a hand on my shoulder, and his touch was almost unbearable, and I remember wincing at it. He said again "I'm sorry, Warp. I really am. We can talk about this more tomorrow .."

But I didn't want to talk about it. And suddenly, I didn't want him touching me either, or anywhere near me, and I pushed his hand away and stood up and said "get off me ..."

I remember then I thought _how in all those vorns could he feel that way about Screamer and Screamer about him and they never said anything to me, _and I was angry again, and before he could leave I said: "

"Just outta interest,TC, did ya ever love _me_?"

He looked at me and his face came over all sad again, but he kept his distance. "Yes, I did once, Warp," he said softly, "yes, very much."

I was crying a lot now, and I felt completely irrational, and I didn't really know why I was asking this, but for some reason I had to see it through. I said: "But not any more?"

"No," he said. "You needed me once, Warp. You haven't needed me for a long time now."

And then he turned and crunched away, a great winged form, moving quickly into the shadows beside the rocks, so I could not see him so well.

Anger welled up in me then, and before he disappeared altogether I yelled at his back "well that's _a fraggin' relief! I just want you to know that I never loved you!" _

He turned back briefly and I could just see him in the shadows. "I know ..." he said. And then he was gone.

And I just sat there on that rock and it felt like my whole life had just been a complete disaster and something in me just let go then, and I didn't even try to stop the fluid which was pouring out of my optics; it made little pools on the desert floor.

_Will Skywarp cast himself over the edge of a cliff in despair? Does Starscream really share TC's desires? What is the cat up to? And what of Mirage? Stay tuned!!!! A x_


	5. Chapter 4 Night 1, Earth, Continued

**== Reconciliation ==**

**Chapter 4. Earth: Night 1 Contd.**

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_Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters or concepts within; I make no money from this story or any other which I have written about Transformers._

* * *

No, it isn't an easy task bringing Mirage and Skywarp together! Much as I adore them both, they are complex and difficult. So is their relationship, although it becomes very beautiful, as are they. They had to be united in quite a radical way, and I had to delve quite deep. Here's their first "encounter" on Earth.

Remember they do have a past on Cybertron from before the war but Mirage can't remember it and Skywarp has done his level best to forget it.

* * *

_And thank you especially Illusion 224 and Ameri for your inspiring feedback – I got this finished after all!_

* * *

_Warnings: Slash/supernatural themes_

* * *

**Author designation: Mirage**

**Autobot Special Operations Team. **

**Position: Intelligence Officer**

There was that saw noise ... and then everything went pitch black.

And yet, there was still something: _I was aware_.

And now, I realised, I was back in that strange place that I'd had a vague recollection of before. Outside, somewhere. A wild place. Mounds of rocks were scattered on the ground but they did not look like any of the formations on Cybertron and I _sensed_ - rather than felt - that this was a place with a heavy atmosphere, most un - Cybertronian. I could also sense the crispness of the air and it seemed that everything was bathed in a silvery glow.

Around and about I could sense the presence of other sparks. They were strangely familiar and yet, I recall, I did not question their identity. There was a quiet acceptance that whoever they were they were meant to be there. And that was all.

I couldn't see them and, obviously, they couldn't see me. So I must be invisible. I remember laughing quietly to myself about that, after all, that was hardly a strange state of affairs for me. But it wasn't like being under the cover of the electro disruptor. I felt light, hollow as though my body had no substance; as though I were floating; and there was no sound. It was like being in a vacuum.

And it was suddenly so obvious what had happened. They had deployed the saw, of course, and I had died, and was about to cross into the Realm of Eternal Illumination.

Well, at least it hadn't hurt ....

......................

_The Realm of Eternal Illumination_. Very soon Primus would come and he would take back my spark and I would become one with the great matrix. That was how it worked. I knew all about it from my time at Simpurr.

And I remember thinking _maybe that is as well_. When you thought about all the events which had befallen Cybertron over the last few millennia, life in this realm was really pretty miserable. And my own contribution to it had hardly been a success.

But then I remember thinking _it isn't fair_. Why had Primus had to do this to me? Things had been different once, I knew. Things had started out full of promise. I'd had a great life ahead of me - but it had all gone wrong and everything had been taken away. Now I couldn't even remember how it once was.

And I'd spent aeons creeping in shadows trying to defeat an enemy who could not be beaten and trying to please a bunch of mechanisms who couldn't have cared less and didn't even like me. I was certain that I would be no loss to anyone now. The 'Cons would be relieved and the Autobots would probably relish packing up my parts. Why had this had to happen to me?

And I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness, because I hadn't thought that it would end like this, and I wished it hadn't, and it all just _was not fair._

And I remember I wept silently then, and asked Primus for an answer, but none was forthcoming; then I just hoped _He _would come and take my spark soon and get this over with. Because I saw no further point in hanging around ....

I remember it went very cold then, and everything went black again, and the sparks had gone ....

I thought: _this is it, Mirage; goodbye cruel universe ...._

... and I stilled inside; and a sort of calm came over me, and I resigned myself, and I waited ...

**Author designation: Skywarp:- **

I do not know how long I sat on that rock for. I remember only that the cold was extreme, and that all around it was very, very quiet, so much so that the air felt thick, and I felt as though I were alone in the universe, and in some kind of cocoon.

I couldn't stop crying, and I hated myself for being so un-Decepticon, and yet I felt I had a right to be like that, and darned if anyone was going to stop me; My universe had just fallen apart. _They _were going. The only two beings who had made my life worth living were going away; cos now I thought about it, there wasn't much else in life. The Cause, yeah. But what had I actually done in the Cause except fly around and blow things up and live in pit-spawned places? What else had it brought me? Stuff all.

The thing that was good about the Cause, _was them._ They had given it meaning. No, they had made it fantastic. And now they were going; and I felt useless and wretched because it had taken me all this time to realize all this and now it was too late.

The rest of my life was a disaster. I could see that now. TC spoke of the Command, but everyone knew I'd never do it without him, without them. The other 'Cons didn't even like me. That whole Soundwave brigade had been trying to get rid of me for aeons, and the coneheads couldn't stand me, and Shockwave hated me, and the triple changers thought I was a jerk. And I'd upset too many others because everyone reckoned I'd used them and broken up bonds and Primus alone knew what else.

Well, when they realised they were going to be stuck with me as their commander the coneheads would probably kill me. If Megatron didn't do it first.

_Why had my wingmates done this to me?_ _Why?_ I loved them and they were leaving me to come to an end like this!

_How could they do it?_

_It was so, so not fair_......

**Mirage**:-

I remember a sort of peace settled over me then in the darkness. There was an "up" side to this, after all. There would be no more having to prove myself all the time, and no more having to chase after 'Cons imagining that if they were all dead I would somehow get something back. When clearly that quest was so futile. Why had I not seen before just how futile it was? They said that before He took your spark you realised things you hadn't realised in life. Well, that must be it.

I gave an inner sigh. The idea of non existence was all right, actually. I meant nothing to the Autobots. If anything, they would be pleased to have me out of the way. No more stress for them having to worry what side I was on, or whether I was creeping around the corridors listening to their smutty conversations.

But, what was more to the point, I wouldn't have to put up with them any more either. No more sarcasm from Ratchet or disapproving glares from Ironhide; Or Sunstreaker looking as though he'd like to take me apart in one move or his brother sniggering beside him.

No more miserable Gears, or Brawn's temper, or Huffer whingeing, or Cliffjumper expounding his highly overrated abilities, or mindless babble from Bluestreak.

Most of all, no more Prowl and Jazz. That condescending, pompous piece with the doorwings had given me his last order.

I wondered if Jazz would be sorry. Maybe he would castigate himself for having left me and his face would be all tear stained as they packed me up. Surely that would be so, no matter what Prowl thought. And I remember feeling a grim satisfaction from that.

Of course, the few friends I did have would be sad as well. Hound and Trailbreaker and Bumblebee. In fact, they might even be devastated, and they would miss me. And that was not so good.

But they would get over it.

**Skywarp:-**

.... and then it felt like everything just became too much. I think my systems just shut down. I was suddenly going off line and I remember thinking that my emergency recovery systems must have kicked in and that this had never happened before but then I hadn't been through anything as dreadful as this before ...

... and the offlinedness would be a break, at least, a removal of the awfulness of the universe out there, just for a little while ...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was what ran through my processor. Whatever it was, I remember the next thing, which was that I was suddenly all dizzy and couldn't get my bearings, and I remember the cold and the silence all around, and I just keeled forwards and fell on to the ground; then I just lay there and the ground was very hard and uneven and cold, and I couldn't move, but it didn't bother me that I couldn't move, because I didn't want to anyway ....

... at least, not at first ...

**Mirage:-**

I remember thinking, _I must think peaceful thoughts. I must wait serenely for Primus_. I tried to bring up an image of Primus, as I imagined Him to be, but could not because I did not know what Primus was.

And then I recall, there was a smidgeon of doubt.

Because I thought - well - wasn't the spark thing supposed to happen _straight away_? That was what they said in Simpurr. As you were about to die, Primus reached down and plucked it from you.

That was why robots went all grey when they died. It wasn't just that their spark had gone _out_, it had been _taken away_.

Well, they must have it wrong in Simpurr.

I went back to waiting in that blackness ...

**Skywarp:-**

Somehow I knew that Ravage was there again ...

... and I remember thinking: _fraggin' cat!_ W_hat in blazes do you want_? _Aren't I goin' through enough...?_

... then I wondered if she was going to rip out my throat circuitry. She'd never liked me, after all. Detested me, in fact. And for a moment I got scared.

But then I thought of Screamer and TC finding my body lying there all mangled and useless and energon leaking everywhere and my spark out and they'd be all sad and sorry but it would be too late.

And that didn't seem such a bad idea. So I willed the cat to do her worst.

**Mirage:-**

In the inner reaches of my mind, a voice whispered.

The voice was deep and throaty, and spoke in an ancient tongue which I had not heard for many, many vorns. It said: "Not yet, not quite yet _shien'kai..."_

My spark gave a sudden jolt

I was not alone.

Something else was here with me, in this space, slinking slowly deep into my awareness, a forgotten echo from the distant past ...

It was as though the Universe froze in time. For I knew this was something ancient, primordial, not like the sparks from earlier, but older. A strangely familiar entity, and one to whom I had always been known...

And I remembered that _shien'kai_ meant _kitten _in the ancient tongue. And I just wished, _wished_ I could place that voice because there was something about it; something I needed to know. And something told me that this entity was going to do something significant. Not because it should, but because it _could_ ....

... and that it would help me, but that there would be a price ...

"_... your Tieg'hua will take care of you ..."_

In the very depths of my spark, something stirred, and it was as though a veil lifted, and at the same time, the blackness evaporated and, as with the time before, I was back in the outside place again and I could feel the chill air.

And the sparks – they were back, too.

All of them.

**Skywarp:-**

The cat didn't do it.

Suddenly, she was gone, and then it was just like somebody flipped a switch in my processor.

The next thing, all this stuff started happening. It was like – scenes from a long time ago, getting played out in front of me. I was flying through a battle zone and there was stuff blowing up all around and Seekers getting shot down and dead and dying and injured; and I was scared, but it was all right because TC and Screamer were right there beside me and I knew that together we would get through it.

But then I looked and _they weren't there_. They'd left me. _Out there ...._

... and then I was in the sky alone, and I was getting fired on and there were heaps of forces on the ground and they had super powerful weapons and the weapons were all aimed on me; and I couldn't fly fast enough to get away from them; and I tried and tried but more and more were firing and it didn't matter how hard I flew there was no way out ...

... and I was going to die out here all alone because they had left me to die ...

... and I cried out to them _... no ... please ..._

But nobody answered.

**Mirage:-**

Back in that place. Primus must have been not quite ready for my spark. The other must be a way station between life and death, and they were waiting too.

There were about a dozen of them, I sensed. Some seemed – troubled.

There was one. One in particular. It burned with great intensity, and it stood out among the others.

And there was more: I sensed great distress; unhappiness; despair.

Instinctively, I drew closer to that spark, and as I did so I could tell, although I knew not how, that its owner was frightened and lost and lonely, and that this was one who tried so much to appear not that way but could not hide it from me because, in this strange state, I could tell that it was so.

And I felt drawn to that spark, like a moth to a candle, because this was as I had been in life. I wanted to go to the owner of the spark and say: _it is all right, you have nothing to fear and you are not alone_, to tell him that I was there too, but it was as though there as an invisible barrier between me and him, and I could not reach through to the other side.

**Skywarp:-**

The scene changed. Now I was before Megatron.

He had the fusion canon powered and he was saying "I'm _very disappointed_ in you, Skywarp. I had high hopes for you, but now I see that you are more useless and incompetent than even Starscream was. There is only one course of action open to me ..."

... then I was getting marched down this dim corridor and our feet clanged in the gloom; and on one side was Thrust and on the other Dirge, and they both had huge weapons in their hands and there were sneers on their ugly grey faces and behind them were their whole two squadrons of Coneheads.

We went into this great cavern where there were sulphur globes high on the walls and shadows dancing and Dirge handed me a dismemberment saw and he said "go ahead _tetrajet_ start cuttin' yerself up. 'Cos it's gonna hurt a lot less if you do than if we do ..." and he laughed a horrible laugh and so did Thrust ...

Then I saw TC and Screamer at the back of the crowd and they saw me looking and they just turned and walked away out of the room and again I cried out after them but it was like they did not hear me ....

**Mirage:-**

How acutely I could feel that spark, and how much pain he was in. How wide and how terrible was the separation between us.

But yet, amazingly, a vision came to me then, of something a long way away: it was an image of Wheeljack, as though frozen, holding the saw. And suddenly, something was clear. I thought: _I am not quite dead yet_. _There is still something I can do_, and I knew then that I had come back to this place for a purpose.

And suddenly, a vision of Prowl smiling as the medic removed various parts of me came into my mind and of the others smirking as the parts were loaded into a transit box and the thought was suddenly very strong that I _did not want them to have the satisfaction of my death_ and, what was more, to my amazement, _I not want to die._

No – _I wanted to live._ I wanted another chance. There were things still left to be done on Cybertron, and I wanted the chance to do them.

But there was something I had to do first. Something to do with this spark....

And something else came to me: _we can help_ _each other ..._

**Skywarp:-**

.... now I was back on the Ark; and all the bits and broken bodies and limbs were lying everywhere; except that this time I really was locked in with them and I couldn't get out.

The door to the Ark was sealed. There was no escape.

Then arms and legs and heads and bodies and tangles of wire and circuitry and Primus knew what else were moving, crawling across the floor into one mass of heaving parts; and they were all putting themselves back together and forming into some great behemoth like Devastator but with all different heads and all bits and parts in the wrong places ...

_.... _and this _thing _was lurching towards me .... hideous, horrible .... like nothing you can imagine ...

.... it had one big head and that was Optimus Prime's head and it had one huge optic and a great red cavern of a mouth ...

.... it opened its mouth and roared and bits fell off it ...

... _it was coming to get me and ..._

... I screamed, then, but there wasn't any sound; and I knew then that nobody cared, and that the Cons had all deserted me in here and that now this Autobot monster was gonna pull me apart and it was going to be a slow lingering death because of all of what I'd done to them over the vorns when they were alive ...

... and nobody was going to do a darned thing about it.

**Mirage:-**

The spark was so very deeply troubled.

He had done dreadful things, I was certain of that and it came to me that he had been my enemy in life, and that, in fact, all of those sparks were enemies, but that this one especially so.

My spark should have sunk at that knowledge. But it did not, because that was not all. There was a softness present; something like a memory trace of another time when the owner of that spark had not been as he became, as he was now; and, I knew also that whatever he had done, he suffered dreadfully and that even in that strange state it was deeply disturbing and I still wished I could go to him.

But it was not to be like that. For something else came to me which was related to and yet apart from all that. And it was so, so clear.

I found myself whispering to the spark: _You have something of mine. Something which you took. Something which I need back if I am to live ..._

_... give it back, and this will make things better for you .... _

With a supreme effort, I channelled my own spark energy and every thought process I possessed in the direction of that spark. And it seemed as though some connection sprang up, and what he could see in his mind, I saw also.

**Skywarp:-**

Suddenly, the monster was - gone.

Just like that!

But then there was all this stuff from even longer ago. Like - a very long time ago. Like – from before the war type long ago .... but it wasn't horrible. It was ...

... places I used to fly around on Cybertron ...

... at first I was buzzing along the expressways in Iacon over the top of the traffic and dodging in and around other flyers and Barricade was after me, siren wailing – because Seekers weren't supposed to go there but I always gave those cops a good run for their credits, and this time I was right there and I was having a good time but the scene didn't last long ...

... then the scene changed and I was over the great Southern Ocean, flying into wind, and I was getting buffeted and rocked by the force of it but it was no problem, and I plunged into it and skimmed low over the water and could smell the ocean and feel the cool spray as it came up off the whitecaps ...

... then I was over the vast Equatorial Plains, going fast, fast, faster, lifted by the heat currents rising from the surface; feeling the air rush cool against my surfaces and relishing the sounds of my quantum reactors humming and echoing off the bare rock ...

... on and on and on ....

**Mirage:-**

The light from the two suns glared and glinted off the bronze rock and made two shadows which kept pace, speeding beneath us; heat mirages shimmered in the distance...

Oh I was right there, with him.

He was a flyer, of course. More than that, he was immensely powerful, and from the speed at which we were moving he could only be a Seeker.

It was a strange realisation. I had spent all those years hunting them down for what they did and now I needed him. A little disquieting, it was, but not enough to deter me from my quest.

I felt impatient with him, however._ Move... _I whispered, even though I did not believe he could hear me.

... _go like the wind_ ... _take me where I have to go ... and hurry..._

Yet, there was still that softness and the sorrow I had felt at his suffering. I still could feel it. And now there was more – the strangest sensation that I _had_ known him in life, had done _more _than just know him, and that this was why I was so drawn to his spark and why I felt his misery so acutely.

But it was a very long time ago. Another echo from the corridors of time long passed through.

And it mattered not. Whatever had been was long gone. I thought: _I need him only to provide what I must have and then that is the end of it_ although, it did occur to me also, that perhaps if I lived and we faced each other again as enemies then this time I would not hunt him down and kill him ...

... and that was an interesting thought ...

**Skywarp:- **

I was still skimming over the plains. And it was wild! The vastness, the nothingness, the speed and the wind. I felt like I'd been released from one of Megatron's mind prisons ...

And I had the weirdest sensation of not being alone. Like - I had a passenger.

No!

It was more like – _a pilot_. Even though with our alt forms on Cybertron there was no such thing as passengers or pilots.

When I realised that, I tried to wake up out of it all. It was like there was a bit of my mind came back online, and it was sifting through stuff about my Earth alt mode and the cockpit. That was what I thought, actually. That this was some Earth creature and it had taken over my mind and was using me to learn about Cybertron ...

.... then, next thing, I was over the Iron Mountains, high above them, and I could see the bronzed peaks rolling endlessly on below and the canyons like jagged gashes in between. I sensed I was headed for Iacon again ...

... and, sure enough, next I was back flying low level, and I was winding along that canyon with the river rushing through that led down from the Mountains to the Lake; and then right below was that waterfall crashing out into the waters of the Lake ...

... and then, it got darker; because I was in amongst all those creepy islands with the tall cliffs which were at that end of the Lake, the ones with the really old buildings on them which towered up there above like they were warning you off; and they that blotted out the sun, and it was so real that I shuddered, like I used to every time I went through that place, and surged forward so as to get through it .....

**Mirage:-**

He was still moving at great speed. Yet, we were winding effortlessly through those gorges with the water rushing in torrents through the channels below. As the rock walls sped by to either side in a blur I could not help but wonder at his incredible judgement and skill. It felt magnificent to be a part of it.

But there was so much more than that – the main thing – the truly incredible thing was - _I knew this place_. Better - _remembered it._ Yes! I even remembered the name. _Shadowvale_ they called it. And I knew also that I had been here a lot as a mechalescent. And although I had never seen it like this before I could remember how I had looked at that rushing water from high up in the towering edifices on the cliffs above, and I knew also that events crucial to my life had happened there.

I couldn't remember what those events were. But I knew that, in time, I would.

I also knew that what I sought, the reason for this escapade, was getting closer, much closer, and I urged him on, on ...

**Skywarp:-**

... I was leaving the spooky islands behind and I swung my wings into a delta shape and fled on across the water and out into the Lake and the light from both suns was making patterns of light dance on the lilac water; and it was real pretty and I could feel the cool surface just below and I felt good ....

... and it had to do with that _pilot_ too. _He_ was making me feel good ...

**Mirage:-**

His speed was awesome!

It was taking no time at all to cross the Lake. And he was so low over the water! His reflection shone deep in the waters, a twin fleeting below, and I could see that he was a tetrajet, a large and powerful one; beautiful too; deadly, but very beautiful; and I knew this explained how amazingly fast he was and the way he could move so swiftly and so fluidly...

**Skywarp:-**

... and then I was going on, on, and ahead were all those smaller islands with the beaches and the flash buildings on them with the arches and spires sparkling, and the curvy bridges and the boats going underneath; and over to my left I could see a way away the line of the scarp at the edge of the Lake where the falls began and, behind it, in the distance, Iacon glittering ...

... and I knew this was the Towers District, of course, and that it was somewhere else I wasn't supposed to be but that I always came here because it made me feel good, so good ...

**Mirage:-**

And then suddenly all around there were flickers and flashes as the light from the two suns of Cybertron glinted off steeples and pillars and towers and turrets, marble and quartz flashing white and grey above the waters, dazzling colours as a million crystals sparkled, refelected in the waters ...

... and _that _was when my spark fairly cried out. For what I sought was in this place, and it was so exactly as I _remembered_ ...

.... and then the Seeker was banking steeply twisting and turning through the islands, diving under bridges, effortless, wingtips clipping the water, and even in that state I felt quite light headed with the sheer exhileration of it all, and again there was that feeling of knowing him somewhere, but when and where eluded me.

But I knew I very, very close now to getting what it was that that I needed. Just so close ...

**Skywarp:-**

I was skimming just over the glassy surface; and all around were those high pointed buildings and around them I could see jetties and stairs and pagodas and walls and crystal gardens, and on my left were the golden domes and I remembered that was the old Palace. And there were all those fountains and statues in the water and huge urns and _that scent_ in the air that was always there – and I knew I had smelt that scent before somewhere, recently, and not on Cybertron ...

The pilot was right there with me, light as an Earthbird's feather. I could feel the excitement in his spark ...

... and I knew then that he loved this place.

I liked him then, whoever he was. I really liked him. I thought him sweet, and with good taste; and my spark went out to him; because I had used to love this place too, all those aeons ago, in those long gone days before war, and Causes, and death, and when I flew for the feelings of freedom and joy and not just to shoot things out of the sky.

**Mirage:-**

He swept on, and as we came to every part of the place data flooded my circuits and memories of things thought long lost were awakened. I knew then that whatever this Seeker had been, I was not angry at him, and I felt nothing but grateful to him now, and I wanted him to not suffer again and to be happy. I remember I wanted so much to touch him, physically, then. No, more than that. I wanted to hold on to him tightly and never, ever let go..

And it seemed now as though as we sped on we were merging somehow. As though my spark were getting closer to his. And I wanted that to be. Oh how much I wanted it to be, because what I wanted from him was just so very, very close ...

Come on! I whispered _come on_...

**Skywarp:-**

I just suddenly felt completely – _energised. _Like really, _really_ good. It's the only way I can describe it.

And then - there it was. Dead ahead. Just where it always was. That one island – with the building on it with the three really tall round pointed towers, taller and greater than all the others, and the towers each had a sun, a star and a moon on them.

... and in the water next to it was a fountain which looked like it sprayed millions of silver teardrops into the lake ..

... and the sunlight sparkled off it all ..

... beautiful, it was. Real beautiful ....

**Mirage:-**

_This was it!_

_Now!_

It was as though for the first time ever in my existence I let go of all that I was, and gave it to him and our sparks brushed for just the briefest of instants. Rapture exploded through every part of me, surging as would a dam which burst its banks, overwhelming in its intensity.

And there was a flash of blue and in that instant a full image of everything we had just seen lodged in my databanks for ever and ever ....

... for that place – that had been my home. That was the life I had, and lost. That was what I was.

He had brought it back. Yes, he had. And I worhipped him for it. Yet, strangely I knew also, right then, without a doubt, that once he had destroyed it; and for an instant my spark rallied ...

... but I could not hate him for it. I sensed somehow that it was not all his doing, and that he had suffered as a result of it. And _he had brought it back_, and it seemed that he had given his very spark to do that, and because he did that, I forgave him for whatever he did before ....

I remember that was my last thought. It hovered like a moth in the dark reaches of my awareness, and then winked out.

And the Seeker was gone; because suddenly it was all gone, and I was falling, falling ...

Falling through blackness ...

**Skywarp:-**

All I know it was like some giant _surge_ went all through my systems and for a moment there everything was hot. _White _hot. Like – _fry all your circuits in an astrosecond_ type hot. And it was the most _amazing _sensation – but then it was all gone, and I was back on Earth, and I didn't know where in Kell I'd been or how I'd got back, but I could feel that hard gravel again and there was that cold chill in the air and I knew something had happened but I didn't know what ...

.. and then, in that instant, I did remember. Oh yeah, I remembered all right; and I cried out then because that place, that beautiful place ... it was right there in my mind ...

_That place wasn't there any more._

It hadn't been there for a long, long time.

It wasn't there - _because I destroyed it!_

And the pain – the pain from knowing that was worse than anything else that had happened so far. I remember that I lay there then, and I could not even cry. It was beyond that. I just lay there numb and in shock and feeling absolutely nothing, until gradually offlinedness crept into my systems again and there was a greyness ...

... and then a blackness. No visions, this time. It was a black void, blacker than the blackest pit in Kell.

**Mirage:- **

And suddenly, I was online again and there was a cold hard surface underneath me which felt like smooth metal, and I could not see, but right above was a mighty roaring; and I knew instantly that I was back in the medlab on the trolley and the noise was the saw ....

Before I could think further a mass of data went streaming through my processor. _You are not nothing, you are something; You are an Alpha Caste of the Iacon Towers of Cybertron, an Illusor, an ancestor of the Guardian of the Ancient Rulers. You have seen the place from where you come and you will never again forget it, or who and what you are; you will live, you must live ..._

_.... and you will _not_ let these morons push you around ... ._

And then I felt another surge of energy, and several systems booted up in rapid succession, and the most important of these was the motor relay system which powered the upper limbs on the left side of my body.

I knew what I had to do. I summoned all my strength, raised my left arm and swiped wildly and blindly in the direction of the saw noise...

**Skywarp:-**

I was being shaken, shaken, shaken...

A vocaliser was making a noise. "Skywarp, get online, _we have a job to do!_ Skywarp! Respond to me immediately!"

I didn't want to be online. But the vocaliser and the shaking wouldn't stop. I gradually unshuttered my optics. An alien light came into them and at the same time into view swam a winged form. A familiar winged form. A red and blue and grey winged form. And it's wings were twitching impatiently.

"What is the matter with you?!" it snapped. "Do you think this mission is going to get accomplished with you lying around in the dirt ..."

I was instantly online. "Starscream ..."

and then I was up and hanging on to him, and nothing else mattered, and I was sobbing on to his shoulder and I was saying: don't go, please, please don't go, _I love you_ ...

"WHAT?" he said. "What the .... _Skywarp!"_ And I felt him trying to shake me off, but I clung on with everything I had.

"Don't leave me ... please Starscream ..." I said again. I was not letting go ...

... not ever.

**Mirage:- **

.... my arm made contact with metal. Hard. Then there was a loud **_clang** _and I heard the saw go into a shrill screech and it sounded like it was running unchecked; then I heard Wheeljack's voice exclaiming: "Whoa!" in great surprise.

My energy spent, my arm dropped to my side and I could feel it dangling over the side of the trolley. But then I felt the engineer's hand on my chest, and then it moved rapidly to my temple, and he was very close cos I could hear his intakes hissing, and next thing he yelled: "Ratch! Get over here... he's .... I don't believe it. He's _alive!"_

I heard the medic say "WHAT ...?" and it sounded as though something large fell on the floor, and then there was a commotion and footsteps and suddenly he was with me too and his hands were upon me, and then it all came back to me what I had heard him saying before, and I disliked him more intensely than at any previous time in my existence; yet, despite this, all I could feel was intense relief that he was who he was and they had realised I was not dead.

"Primus ...!" the medic yelled. ".... life support machines, quick! And then he was yelling into his com : _Bumblebee - medbay! Code 14_ ..."and then there was a great scrabbling and the sound of machinery again and crashing and clanging and then I heard the door burst open and an extra set of feet come pounding in ....

... then I was being pushed and pulled and I could feel things being plugged in all over the place and systems starting to reboot here and there, and then my spark gave a sudden surge and the rest of my systems came online, and there was a roar in my audials as my pump leapt into full operation.

Above it all, I could hear Wheeljack saying "Hey! I told ya there'd be a failsafe mechanism ..."

**Skywarp:-**

I felt a great shove in my chest and I lost balance and fell backwards, and now I was sprawled in the gravel among the rocks and Earth bushes looking up at him, and he was towering above me, and his face was dark and he looked all cross.

"Explain yourself!" he said.

I was still sobbing, and I knew I looked stupid and unconlike, but I didn't care. I blurted out: "When we get back to Cybertron, I don't want you to leave! Or if you and TC go off I want to come with you ..."

He was looking amazed now, like he thought I must have blown my main neural circuitry. He shook his head and muttered something.

But then his face went softer and he knelt down and gently stroked my cheek, in a way that he hadn't for a very long time – longer than I could remember; and I thought at the time it was the loveliest thing I have ever felt in my life. I grabbed hold of his hand and held it against my lips and shuttered my optics and cried some more.

I felt his other hand stroke my cheek again and he sighed. "Skywarp!" he said, "I know you've missed me. And I've missed you too. So much, sweet spark. And I don't know what you're talking about, but right now the only place anyone is going is back to Cybertron ... now let go of me please. Come on now ..."

I didn't want to detach myself from him but I did, slowly. I looked up at him and he was smiling "We could, of course, go on the scrap heap if we don't get this structure demolished .."

And then he was up and striding away, his feet crunching. And I remember looking around at the desert and seeing that the sky in the east was red, and realizing it was not so cold.

"Come, Skywarp ..." he called. He disappeared round behind the rock outcrop.

There was something ... what was it? Vague memories of tall shining buildings and still waters. I couldn't figure it. So I just got up and stumbled after him, confused. I guessed it didn't really matter. It didn't look like he was going. That was the only thing that mattered right then.

The last thing I remember before I left that spot was that the cat came out of some bushes as I was leaving and she had some mangled winged Earth thing dangling out of her jaws. _Disgusting creature_, I remember thinking.

She narrowed her optics to slits and shot me a look of pure venom and I gave her what I hoped was one back and we went separately over to the camp.

I couldn't help feeling that it had been a pretty weird start.

**Mirage:-**

I found I could move and see again and their three forms wavered slowly into focus.

"Mirage!" Rachet was saying, "Geez, you sure had us worried there for a while. We thought we'd lost ya for sure. Wouldn't want to lose our favourite spy now, would we?" and I could see Bumblebee there smiling and Wheeljack nodding in agreement.

_You two faced so and so._ I felt incredibly angry and I longed to just tell them what I thought and storm out of there, as I was so good at doing and had done so many times. But I couldn't, of course, because I was incredibly weak. Besides, I surmised, controlling myself, it may be useful to have them not know if I had heard anything or not. So, instead I looked at them with as much of something close to a smile as I could muster and said:

"Of course. I'm very sure you wouldn't"

Wheeljack looked at Ratchet, guiltily, I thought. "Welcome back!" lights flashed in time with his vocaliser.

"Yeah!" said Bumblebee. He came over to the trolley then and took my hand and squeezed it, and that felt nice.

I was suddenly very, very tired then, and I shuttered my optics. But it was a peaceful tiredness. Strongly in my awareness was that place with the three spires, and the lake, and everything else which was the Towers, and I closed my optics and basked in the memories I had not enjoyed for so long. I did not know how I had come to remember it all again. But right then that didn't matter.

"Thank you, Bumblebee," I said, and then I drifted offline.

All in all, I concluded - _it had been a pretty weird start; but it was all right._

_............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................_

_Bit different, huh? Hope you liked it. Let me know._

_It's just the beginning! They don't recall all the details of this for a while – but the experience is lodged now right there in their circuits and it soon starts to exert an influence. This will now closely follow the first ever G1 episodes More than meets the Eye. And told from this perspective, it does get interesting!!_

_There's a lot of intrigue on the way too – apart from M&S. Look out for the cat. And the Reflector triplets._

_Music – if you like all that imagery with the lake and the Towers I recommend you listen to "Teardrops on the Fire" by Massive Attack – goes really well._

_Don't know how much of this – or my other stories – I will get done in the next week or so as I have my 3000km house move to contend with. Not fun. **thinks** I need a spacebridge. Any offers??? A._


	6. Chapter 5 Day 2, Earth, Mirage

**== Reconciliation ==**

**Chapter 5. Earth: Day 2 **

* * *

_Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters or concepts within. I make no money from this story or any other about Transformers._

* * *

Prime and Megatron are brothers in this. _Durr_ – yes I freely admit I did get that idea from the movie. But I thought it was a good one for this.

I'm going to have to duck more flying objects hurled by Ratchet fans here ....

I blame Mirage :-)

* * *

_Warnings: Implied slash, adult themes, course language_

* * *

**Author designation: Mirage**

**Autobot Special Operations Team. **

**Position: Intelligence Officer**

I spent the whole of the next day in the medbay under the ministrations of Ratchet.

I had the headache from Kell. Rachet told me I had received, prior to deactivation during the battle en route to Earth, a blow to the head and that this was what had disconnected my CPU from my vital systems centre. Some fail safe mechanism had reconnected it all up just before they started my dismemberment. Ratchet had spoken of this in highly technical terms, as though extremely knowledgable on the subject, but I got the distinct impression he was less sure of what had happened than he made out. One thing he was certain of though, it was the head blow that been responsible for bringing back my memories of the Towers upon reactivation.

I couldn't shake this uncanny feeling that something else had happened as well, something beyond my current perceptions and reality; but whilst I would not have called myself an unbeliever in the existence of such things, I did not dwell on this. For it was important only that I had the memories back. Nothing else really mattered. It was just a damned nuisance about the headache.

Apart from that, there didn't seem to be all that much wrong with me now that I was back online, but Ratchet, of course, could be relied upon. He insisted on carrying out every conceivable test known to Primus. Scans, probes, neural circuitry evaluations, motor function tests, he left nothing wanting. Then every procedure in the known universe was thrust upon me.

"Time for another vital systems energon flush!" he said, smiling, coming over with a large canula in his hand

I winced. This particular procedure was far from pleasant. It consisted of being plugged into a machine which drained all the energon out of you and purified it. It made the subject feel sick and weak, and, and it hurt.

I said "Is that absolutely necessary? I had one of these half a joor ago? Why do I need another one?"

The medic beamed. I got the impression he was having the time of his life. "Can't be too careful now can we? After all we're not dealing with your average common mechanism here are we?

I wished he would give me some painkillers Maybe even euphoric inducers, which also brought about a sense of wellbeing. I thought they might cure my headache and I could also return to my musings about the Towers for the memories were far from complete and I knew I would have to set up some neural association links if I were to recall more. I wanted to spend more time on them. Which was impossible when I was being distracted from by his unwelcome interferences.

But I knew what the answer would be if I asked for such a thing. Something like: "I ain't givin' ya them things! That stuff's for mechs with _real _pain been injured in _real _battles bad... " So there was no point. Anyway, I was darned if I was going to let him know just how much all this hurt. So I suffered in silence.

He was smiling again. "We can't have you goin' back to Cybertron only half functional now can we? Now hold out yer arm ..."

I flinched as he plunged the canula deep into the brachial conduit, far harder, I was sure, than was really necessary. Then I ground my dental plates together – as I am prone to do under stress – as he manoeuvred it into the right spot.

"Incidentally," I said, through gritted plates, "when are we going back?"

He didn't look up. "Aw.. soon," he said. "Real soon. When we've done what we need to do here. There! I'll just plug you in now and you know the drill. You just lie back and have a little rest."

I lay back. My head started to spin as I felt the energon draining from my system, and my head pounded even worse. I shut my optics and tried to go offline.

I remember, then, that for the first time I wondered what had happened to the 'Cons. I only had vague memories of that struggle on the Ark but I could remember Megatron bursting out of the boarding shute and of weapons going off and mechs flying through the air and Seekers everywhere. They must have crashed here, with us – there was no way they would have got out of the Ark. And if the force of the impact was enough to put every single one of our emergency deactivation systems into play, then it must have done the same to theirs.

They would, of course, be all dead now – because they didn't have an equivalent to Teletran 1 able to reactivate mechanisms with Decepticon programming.

For some reason the thought was saddening, but I quickly pulled myself out of such sentiments. They'd destroyed everything for me, I reminded myself; were the reason I'd come here – so I could be a part of getting what we needed here and going back and exacting revenge on Megatron and especially on the Elite Air Command.

Or, better still, doing it here when - as I'd strongly suspected they would - they followed us here ...

I thought to myself. There would be no revenge now. Not on those individuals in particular, anyway. Was that what I felt sad about? That fact?

Well, I thought, I mustn't feel like that, because getting what we needed here and getting on our way should be a simple task now; then once we got back, even the Autobots shouldn't find it too hard to deal with the remaining cons in the absence of Megatron and the EAC. Once that was over we could start to rebuild. And move on. And now, at least, I knew what I wanted to rebuild.

And, although it was sparklingish, I would have the satisfaction of being able to say to Prowl: "I told you so," because he had ignored my warnings back on Cybertron about the likelihood of being followed by Megatron; had behaved in his usual condescending, dismissive way about the whole thing. Yes – that would be most gratifying – particularly since I now didn't even have to deal with the consequences of being right.

Ratchet was busy over the other side of the lab with what looked like a part of somebody's hand. I had a sudden thought. I said "What did you do with their bodies?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked across. "Eh?" he said.

He was looking at me curiously. "Their bodies. The 'Cons," I said. "Are we taking them back or leaving them here? I would have thought there'd be some useful spare parts for you and Jack to entertain yourselves with Ratchet, if nothing else."

The medic's optics narrowed and a suspicious look came on to his face, then. A look I'd see often enough – and I supposed my question was more than sufficient to bring it on. But there was something more. A defensiveness; evasiveness, even. It was similar to the sort of look I'd seen many times on the faces of the twins when they hadn't been entirely truthful about the magnitude of their purported success on the battlefield.

He looked away again and went back to the hand: " ...er – Prime's still making the decision, " he said, It's er – gotta go before the Council."

He was avoiding my gaze. "Right." I said "Did we recover all of the bodies, or just a few?"

He didn't look up. He seemed – uncomfortable. "Yeah, all I think," he muttered. "Well, it might not be all ... actually ... it might just be one or two." And then I guess he could feel my optics on him because I was giving him that cold blue optic'd stare for which I was famous with Bots and Cons alike.

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me: "Well Kell, how should I know?" he snarled. "I'm just the medic ...!" he pointed a finger at me "... and you've got no right asking this stuff Mirage! Why don't you mind your own slaggin' business?!" He went back to the hand again.

For the second time that day if I hadn't felt so weak I would have been up and out of that place. In fact, the way I felt just then I might even have landed him one as I left, even if it would have brought me down to the level of Sunstreaker. As it was, all I could do was lay back and sigh in extreme frustration.

The Council.

Convened rapidly before we left Cybertron: Prime, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Prowl and Jazz. Apart from Jack, they were the old guard from the Government days. I had never been a part of that circle and I never would be.

They never told me anything. Except the bare facts of what I needed to know if they wanted to utilise my superior fighting skills or needed information which could only be acquired through invisibility. I might use it to my own advantage, you see, or go and tell the Cons something or some other ludicrous thing. It was more than that, though. They liked keeping things to themselves.

Not that it bothered me as far as work was concerned. They often had it wrong, and I could often do a better job of gathering facts together without their assistance. Usually I ended up knowing more than they did. And I didn't always tell them everything either.

But this sort of situation – this annoyed me. Annoyed me because it was typical of the way they operated. Like – they maintained that everyone had a right to know what was going on, and they preached equality and inclusiveness, but it wasn't like that. It was information and privileges in the hands of a select few. And this was important information, I sensed, and they had no right to keep it back; especially from me - their _Intelligence Officer_, for Primus sake.

I felt furious. Yes, I thought, this was why no matter how I felt about the 'Cons, I could never support the "Bots Cause either. It was like a microcosm of the whole Equilibrial government back on Cybertron. The supposed "representative democracy" Which was no more representative than a room full of turbofoxes might represent the entire extent of Cybertron's cyberfauna. The complete unworkability of the concept was bad enough. But the crass hypocrisy of its leaders had always meant an absolute death knell for any real support I might have given it.

The medic might not be on the Council but he was in cahoots with it and I was certain he knew more. I wasn't letting up. I said: "I suppose Prime will want to give his brother a full Cybertronian funeral. No matter what he might have done over the vorns."

The medic looked across. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah. Somethin' like that .."

I lay back again. Then I thought: _oh well so what_. Did it matter? Let them have their secrets, if it meant so much. The 'Cons were dead - and whatever else Ratchet might do he was hardly likely to effect a reactivation on the way home. I felt really weak now. The drain cycle was nearly complete and I had hardly any energon left in my system. The machine alone was keeping my vital systems going. It would clean the energon now, and while it did so it would flush my whole circulatory system prior to reinjecting the purified energon.

At least the headache was not so bad. As the last of my energon washed into the machine I thought of the Towers again. As the flush cycle started and I felt the icy cleansing fluid flow into my conduits, there was just the briefest sensation of travelling at great speed; flying, I seemed to be; then of something dark and dangerous creeping in shadows.

Just a flash. Then it was gone.

....................

I went offline for a little while then. When I came back online, the headache was back and I thought immediately of what Ratchet had said and of the conversation I'd overheard when I'd been "dead."

I ground my dental plates. I was going to have problems here. I could feel it. I should never have allowed myself to be talked into coming on this foolhardy excursion.

Did I really think they were going to take that much notice of me down here? No – my focus hadn't even been on that. It had been on killing Megatron and those Seekers – either there or here.

I thought about this now. Even if they had been alive, what did I really think I was going to gain by killing them all? It wasn't going to bring anything back. It would, though, have brought other satisfaction and cleared the way ahead for future progress. Well, I guessed the way was clear now anyway.

Now it was just a question of getting back. And in the meantime, coping with the Autobots and their poor decision making skills; their cliques and their ineffective leadership and their obnoxious warriors. I made a mental note to deal only with Prime and to have as little to do with most of the others – with a few exceptions – as possible.

The main thing was to get off this rock straight away, and not be deterred for any other silly reason the Council might come up with. I would speak to Prime directly as soon as possible. It was common sense that there was no point in hanging around here. And I would make sure he slagging well listened to me as far as that was concerned.

I thought again of the Council, and how frustrated I always became with the Autobots and their Cause. Then I thought of the 'Cons again, and the fact that I had secretly always thought that the Decepticon Cause had, in fact, more going for it. At least it wasn't underpinned by some nonsensical political regime which was bound to completely unworkable notions. I mean – how could everyone be equal? We weren't! You only had to look at our different functions to see that and the special privileges enjoyed by the Autobot leadership proved it. Otherwise why didn't they take it in turns at being leader? Or give the job to somebody like – Huffer, for instance? The whole idea was ludicrous.

At least the Decepticons accepted that a hierarchical structure was inevitable, and they operated on that premise. All right, so it was a brutal structure, based on survival of the fittest and where the strongest ruled but at least they were open and honest and cards on the table about it all. Were they really so bad?

_Yes, they were_, I reminded myself. Because their leader was a ruthless megalomaniac who had shown no mercy for anyone or concern for the good of Cybertron and their oufit was full of other antisocial factions all in it for themselves; the Seekers were wanton destroyers and the leader of the Elite Air Command was crazy. No, it certainly wasn't all right either. Neither Cause was all right.

There was an order which had been all right. The Utopian one. When the Alphas, my ancestors, had ruled. The Towers – they had lived up there and they had ruled, and I had still felt a part of that before the war because even though the Alphas didn't have the political power any more, we had still been Alphas and we still had that place, and we had still held a lot of the wealth of Cybertron. Losing that place had swept the last vestiges of my culture away, and I felt a stab of acute pain in my spark. Suddenly I wasn't so sure that it was such a good thing that I remembered its magnificence now so acutely. Because it was all gone now. Completely gone. When the bots spoke of loss they didn't know the half of it. They'd lost a lifestyle. Me – I'd lost my whole foundations.

I sighed. They had never understood that. Didn't want to understand. The Towers was something which shouldn't have still been there anyway, as far as they were concerned. An annoying anachronism, a drain on Cybertron; sitting up there in that Lake which could have been put to better purpose. Some even thought that if anything about the war was good it was the Seekers blowing the Alpha Districts away.

Well, there was nothing I could do about it - or the fact that it looked as though we were going to be stuck with the Equilibrium again. But maybe now, with no more war, the Alpha Council might emerge from the shadows and prove itself a little more influential, and we could, at least, start to re-establish the corporate base. At least now I knew what I wanted to rebuild. I made a mental note that now I really would track down Smokescreen, who knew the location of certain valuable artifacts I had hidden before the war.

In the meantime I would humour the Autobots. Make the right noises. Because I had their blasted insignia on and they were convinced of the absolute virtues of their Cause, and incapable of comprehending how anyone who wore the Autobot insignia could not be _one hundred per cent_ committed to it all, and they insisted that anyone else in their employ must also share that commitment. I knew if I didn't rise up in enthusiasm, things would get tough. So I had to try.

Although this time I wasn't sure that I hadn't run out of energy trying ...

...................

The door hissed open and the portly figure of Optimus Prime appeared, framed in the doorway.

"Ah Mirage ..." he said, and his face lit up in that broad, genuinely caring smile for which he was famous but which was often hidden behind a mask. He came across to the berth and shook my hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Quite good really, considering what I'm getting subjected to here," I said, my optic on the medic, who had just re-entered the room and was avoiding looking at me. "Why don't you sit down?" I gestured to the stool beside the berth.

Prime beamed. "Glad to, Mirage! Glad to!" he said. He pulled up the stool and settled his bulk on it.

Optimus Prime is a very large 'bot and the medbay on the Ark was not very big. He seemed to fill the whole of it. He smiled amiably. Then he came out with the standard patter that I had heard so many times over the years.

" ... I would just like to say how pleased I am to have you on board, Mirage .... you're a valuable member of the team .... everyone appreciates your special talents and the difficulty of the job you do ... the contribution you've made over the years .... I am well aware that it has not been easy for you ...," etcetera, etcetera.

I stole a glance across at the medic who was now fiddling with a machine of some sort on the other side of the lab. I wondered what it would be like to be stuck in this place so much and to have to play with machines and body parts and put up with sick and whingeing mechs all the time. It was hardly an appealing profession. But it didn't give me any sympathy for him either. It was, after all, in these days of equal opportunity, _his choice._ He did not look up, but his expression darkened as Prime was talking.

"If there's anything, anything at all ...," the Autobot leader laid a hand on my arm, "... my door is always open!" he finished with another smile, his kindly blue optics looking straight into mine.

I wanted to say: "Yeah, there is something. Most of your team – especially that one over there - don't like me and they don't trust me. I've lost more than anyone here and nobody gives a turborat's aft. I don't want to be here. I want to go back to Cybertron. I don't care how you do it, just get me back...;" I would even have added: "... and one more thing: you can shove your Cause up your ..."

But as I have said, I rarely swear outwardly. And, anyway, you just can't say things like that to Optimus Prime. He is so good at coming out with stuff that makes you feel all appreciated - and you know he really means it - that you just couldn't do it. So there he was smiling all cheerily and caringly and I knew that he genuinely meant what he said, and to say anything even remotely like what was in my mind was out of the question.

So instead, I just said "Thank you, Prime. Are we going back to Cybertron soon?"

Prime made a throaty sort of a noise and sat back, and now I was aware of Ratchet looking across.

"Er ... yes, of course, Mirage." Prime seemed nervous. "This planet is – er – rich in resources and it should be no problem getting what we need and making plans for our return...."

Something about the way he said it. I thought of the medic's earlier evasiveness. When I said nothing, he went on: "Look, Mirage, there's just a few ... issues ... we need to sort out first. Then we'll be on our way ..."

Now there was a growing sense of dread in my mind, and my spark sank, because I had been half expecting this. There would be some ludicrous idea or proposition on the agenda, I had no doubt. "_What sort of issues?"_ I said.

Optimus Prime rearranged himself on the stool. He looked decidedly uncomfortable now. It was actually a mark of Prime's genuine niceness that he hated telling anyone anything he knew they didn't want to hear - which often had implications for the functionality of his units, as it meant he gave out a distorted an overoptimistic version of how things were.

I knew I was giving him _the look_. He took a deep intake. "Well," he said, "... sometimes things don't turn out like you think they will, Mirage ... it might not be quite as straightforward as .... but - come now - it shouldn't be a problem. Nothing you need to be too worried about ..."

I felt a growing unease as he was talking. "_What _shouldn't be a problem?" I know my vocaliser had a sharp edge to it. Somehow, at that point, it was as though I already knew what was coming.

He said: "Look ... we're all very lucky to be alive and this planet has a great deal to offer. It's just a question of - well - dealing with a few – _difficulties_ – which were not altogether unexpected ..."

And then, suddenly, instinctively, I knew. Exactly. Even though I was darned if I knew _how ...._

"The Decepticons are alive aren't they?" I said.

Prime looked away. Now he was distinctly unhappy. "Er ... yes ... well ... they could be...." his vocaliser stammered. "Yes. They - er – they could very well be ..."

I said: "_How_, in the name of Primus?"

"Oh ...," he said, "... it was – er – Teletran, we think, Mirage. Seems to have scanned one of the Seekers ... before he got to us ... it was a systems malfunction... clearly ... it's – er – it's been dealt with."

I leaned back and sighed, a myriad of mixed emotions in my processor. There was a silence while I marshalled them. Clearly this had the potential to delay our "departure" somewhat; but then - well we were just going to have to deal with it, weren't we? I thought: _Oh well, I will now, perhaps, get my chance at revenge after all. _I said: "oh well, I guess before we crashed we kind of had it forced on us the mode of thinking that we'd be needing to deal with them, didn't we?"

Prime looked a little easier. He laid a hand on my arm. "Look, he said, "I don't want you to worry yourself too much, Mirage. Not all of them may have made it, and we know there are many more of us than there are of them, and that the ones that are here do nothing but fight between themselves ..."

When I said nothing, he went on: "We've got a very capable team ... some fine warriors. Now you just leave things to them, Mirage, and concentrate on getting better ..."

He looked across at the medic for the first time, who looked back. "You're in good hands here ... eh Ratchet ...?"

"He sure is!" said the medic, smiling and coming across, and I could detect much in his tone that was far from benevolent, but Prime evidently could not.

Prime looked awkward again. He shifted on his seat, and glanced at the medic. Then he appeared to decide it was time to bring the conversation to a close. "Well - there you have it..." he said, getting up. "... I'm sorry to give you that news, Mirage .... but everything will be all right, you'll see ... "

He looked at the medic again, who returned to the machine.

I was absolutely flabbergasted. And then incensed. How dare he fob me off like that? What about my role here? I'd be out of the medbay by next cycle. Before he could go I grabbed hold of his arm. "Now wait a minute." I tried to stop myself sounding as though I were talking through gritted plates again, but that was hard, because I was. I said: "I think you owe me a few things Prime. For one thing, how do you intend tackling this?"

He looked sheepish. "The Council ..." he said "...we're meeting soon. We're going to – er – put together a plan.

I know I was giving him that cold piercing stare again. He looked awkward again too but I wasn't going to help him. I kept up the gaze. He said: "Look - er - I'll be looking in on you from time to time ...," and then he added: " ... oh and – er – Hound and Bumblebee are anxious to see you. I'll get them to keep you in the loop ..."

He attempted a smile, nodded and was gone.

"Well!" said Ratchet, coming across before I could think anything further. "It looks like we may be needin' them fancy moves of yours after all! I think we should run that vital systems circuitry analysis again now. You up to that, buddy?"

The VSC analysis was another distinctly uncomfortable procedure. But this time the suggestion was made in perhaps just a slightly less sadistic way. It crossed my awareness pool that maybe the medic hadn't known everything.

I lay back and shuttered my optics and nodded. "Don't count on seeing any moves, Ratchet ..." I said.

It was as though my spark were sinking into a dark pit. For whilst part of me was thinking: _oh well, you knew this was coming, now it's time to get it over with._ I had a dreadful feeling of foreboding. Not only would I not be "in the loop" I knew already, but I had a sudden conviction of something else. Something I had long suspected, but never been able to prove. Something which the Autobots would have taken me apart over if they knew how strongly I now believed it to be so.

That Prime didn't really want to kill his brother.

And it was overshadowed only by the notion of something even more sinister ...

That I would also be called upon here to do something I really didn't want to do.

And above all else, one thing was certain: We could be on this planet for a very, very long time.

....

_Yep - bad luck Mirage! Back to Skywarp in the desert again next chapter._


	7. Chapter 7

**== Reconciliation ==**

**By Ayngel**

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**Chapter 6. Earth: Day 2 **

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_Disclaimer__: I do not own Transformers, nor do I own any of the characters or concepts, nor do I make any money from any story written about Transformers. Please do not sue me._

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Starscream is the ultimate manipulator...

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_**Warnings: **__Slash, implied sexual acts between mechanical entities._

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**Scene: Earth/Desert/Early morning/Decepticon Camp**

**Author: Designation Skywarp. **

**Elite Aerial Combat Unit. **

**Position: Second in Command.**

As I emerged into the main area of the base, the cat padded off to my left where I could see, a short distance away, Megatron having a conversation with Soundwave. Our leader flashed bright silver in the morning sun. Far over the other side, I could see Screamer and TC with the triplets. There was a crispness to the air and the desert had that orange glow again, and I thought once more how strangely like the Iron Hills it was.

I started over towards my wingmates but before I had got very far, I saw another mech approaching from the left. It was Rumble; purple chest puffed out, his small form strutted with a huge sense of importance. He looked, as usual, as though he'd just been handed the Decepticon High Command. I always found the sight of him like that irritating, but today it was especially so because he looked as though he'd had a decent night's recharge, whereas I most certainly had not.

I went to ignore him and to keep going over to the others, but he called out "hey, you .."

I turned to the little punk

"Are you talkin' to me?"

"Yeah!" he said, coming to a halt. And then he drew himself up, and a smug look came about him. "Megatron wants to see ya! So you'd better get yer aft over there ..." and he gave me another look which was, I think, supposed to convey that he'd just been completed a mission of huge importance and shown how much more highly thought of he was than me in the scheme of things here; then he turned and strutted away again, feet crunching in the gravel, hide glinting in the morning sun.

I made a mental note that as soon as we were alone together he was on the hit list. No matter what Soundwave or the Cat did or said.

.................................................

As I crossed to the leaders area, I decided that I had to hand it to Megatron. Despite all we had been through, he looked magnificent. His perfect angular features looked handsome and aristocratic, his helmet shone like a beacon and the whole of the rest of him was polished to a high shine. Standing there gleaming in the sunlight, hands on hips, awaiting my arrival, he radiated energy and purpose.

He did, of course, have the triplets to work on him. That was mainly what they were here for. Nevertheless, the result was impressive. I was reminded of why I had first joined the 'Cons all those aeons ago before the war.

I just hoped that all that power and raw energy wasn't about to be vented on me over whatever it was he wanted to see me about.

Beside him stood the dark silent bulk of Soundwave and, at his feet was the Cat. It was, of course, too much to hope for that this would be a private appointment, although at least Rumble seemed to have gone elsewhere.

As I came up to them I saw that Soundwave, as usual, had no expression and was completely still, arms folded. The cat had the Earth thing on the ground in front of her held down by her paws and was pulling it apart piece by piece; little white objects and fluffy things and other revolting looking mushy parts were scattered all around. A red liquid which had dried in places was all over the place as well. I wondered if that was the equivalent of energon.

The creature, whatever it had been, was organic and of no use whatsoever. I wondered what in Kell was the point of doing what the cat was doing, but then I remembered that the cat liked killing, just for fun, and there didn't actually have to be a point to it. She seemed not to even notice I was there now, she was so bound up with her sport.

"Ah, Skywarp," Megatron smiled. He looked down at me, still smiling and I thought that this might be all right. He didn't have the fusion canon attached to his arm, and that was a good sign. Although not necessarily....

He smiled again. "Now, tell me – _tell your Leader_ - how are you feeling today?"

Now I didn't like the smile. It was too much that sort of smile which meant trouble. It made all my circuits creep - but the trick was to appear like nothing was wrong. "Fine, Sir!" I said brightly, although it was a long way from true. I'd felt like I'd been through a trash compactor when I came online and I still felt as rough as uncut energon now. "Yeah, fine ..."

"That's good,_ good_ ..." he was staring straight at me, red optics shining. " .... _really_ good! Because Soundwave tells me you underwent some sort of _intense emotional disturbance_ last night!"

I froze. I was conscious of the great blue blob just standing there not saying anything. I still had the weirdest images in my conscious pool, of mountains and lakes and tall buildings with spires and arches. Then there were others - of battles and bodies in the Ark. I knew something had happened, but I could not pinpoint in my memory circuits as to what.

Soundwave couldn't read my thoughts, of course. I was a Seeker, an assimilate, and as such he could only read my emotions. He wouldn't have known what was said in the row I'd had with TC, nor whatever had gone on in my head whilst I was in that Primus awful pathetic excuse for a recharge last night. No, he wouldn't have seen any of that.

But he would sense I was still worried – because even though I felt reassured by Screamer's gentle touch earlier, I still did not know exactly what he and TC were planning to do, and I still had that sick feeling . He would pick that up, and he would also, worse still - so bad that I groaned inside - know about the _tears. _Both last night and this morning.

And he would have told Megatron about the _tears_, and my energon chamber gave a lurch as I realised that the_ tears_ were probably why I was over here now.

Now the blue creep's red optics were on me, and it did nothing to make me feel better. And I felt all anxious about what Megatron was going to say and I knew he'd be picking up on that as well, and I tried not to feel even more nervous about it, and at the same time it annoyed me intensely because it was just such a _nerve_ and I remember thinking that Soundwave was the only thing I _hated _about the Cons, and then squashing that thought too because I knew he'd be bound to pick something out of it for sure.

I looked at the ground and scuffed at a rock. I felt like I was on display. In the distance were clanking sounds as though some sort of contraption were being put together and from the direction of the cat came the crunching of some alien substance. Otherwise, the sounds of Earth went on as they undoubtedly always did; insects hummed in the sunshine, birds cawed as they wheeled overhead and somewhere a creature called out.

I could feel him glaring at me, all silver and powerful. "Well?"

I didn't look up. I said "Er – well, y'see ... Thundercracker said this thing. It – er – upset me at the time. But it's sorted now..." Then when he said nothing, I dared to look up at him.

He was smiling. That awful smile usually reserved for Screamer which made the energon freeze in my conduits . "I see ...," he said. He turned and took a few paces away from me. An even worse sign. When he paced.

Soundwave was still standing there not moving. More crunching and crushing sounds came from the cat.

I stole a glance past Megatron to the other side of the camp. I could see the forms of Screamer and TC over by the structure. At that moment I really wished Screamer were there beside me – partly because at the sight of him my spark gave a pulse, but partly because it would be good if he could bear the brunt of what I was sure now was headed my way. Despite everything, I couldn't help noticing that he and TC looked like they were having some sort of argument. I caught the sound of Screamer's vocaliser screeching something and then TC shouted something back, but I couldn't catch it.

I strained to hear more, but Megatron turned back to me and I looked quickly back at him. His superior alloys rustled softly; his feet crunched in the gravel. "Skywarp," he said softly, "do you know how many doubts I had about engaging you three for this mission?"

"No sir ..."

"Do you know how much easier it would have been for me to bring the coneheads?"

"I guess it would've been, Sir ..." _Would it?_

An image ran through my head then of Thrust and Dirge with something horrible in their hands. It looked like - a saw. It was to do with something last night, I knew. That stuff I couldn't remember. Whatever it was, it made me shudder. I shut it out.

He was right in front of me again, his hands on his hips, looking down at me. His red optics blazed brightly. "And do you know why I did not bring the Coneheads?"

"Not really, sir ..."

"I brought you three because I needed innovation and team work in this place and I cannot deny that in the past you three have ..." he turned away again and looked over to where Screamer and TC still looked to be having words "... you have - much as it may pain me to admit it - shown yourselves capable of providing this when you operate together ..."

Beyond him, it looked as though TC yelled something at Screamer and then charged away, and Screamer threw his hands in the air like in frustration. Trying to think about what Megatron was saying and not about them, I swallowed and said: "Thank you sir. I'm sure we can – er – innovate just fine"

"Yes, you three are very good together...," he was saying, still looking across to where Screamer was now standing alone and staring after TC. His voice was calm but now I sensed a simmering fury behind it. Then his foot tapped impatiently in the gravel and I heard Soundwave shift and a chill ran through my circuits, because I sensed what was coming.

Sure enough he rounded and I flinched as, optics blazing, his seemed to swell, and he burst out

"_BUT NOT WHEN YOU ARE ENGAGED IN NONSENSICAL EMOTIONAL RELATIONSHIP RUBBISH!"_

His voice echoed off the surrounding rocks. Beside me I heard Soundwave make a slight noise and it seemed as if elsewhere in the camp the sounds stopped.

"No sir .." Now I definitely wasn't looking at TC and Screamer, and I was aware that I was stammering, and I was looking at the ground again and wishing a crack would open and I could jump in.

"I WON"T HAVE IT!" he yelled, and now I heard his feet in the gravel again, furiously pacing. "_THIS IS AN ARMY! NOT SOME PRAXAN HOLODRAMA! I EXPECT YOU THREE TO BEHAVE LIKE THE SOLDIERS YOU ARE, NOT LIKE A BUNCH OF FEMMES WHO CAN'T COPE WITH THEIR BOND MATES!_"

There was absolute silence. Even the Earth noises seemed to have stopped. I know I was shaking. Soundwave made another noise and that moment I detested that blue creep even more than usual. I was also aware that Ravage had finished pulling apart the critter, whatever it was, and it was in pieces all over the place. She got up and slunk away.

Megatron was right there, glaring at me and I thought : _This is it. He's going to hit me. Right in front of everyone. Well I guess if Screamer can take it then so can I ..._

And, strangely, on top of everything else that had happened it suddenly didn't seem as serious as it otherwise would have been. I remember being thankful that the fusion canon was sitting on the ground.

I braced, and closed my optics. But then, he sighed.

And to my relief he didn't hit me.

I dared to look up at him. "_I'd expect this from the triplets. Not you three .."_

I looked back at the ground and tried to appear sorry for my sins. Soundwave was still there. I remember thinking: _Primus, don't you have anything better to do with your time?_

There was a silence again. Slowly the clanging started up again in the distance. Megatron looked like his anger had just sort of – gone and I realised I'd been lucky enough to have him vent his fury without getting clouted, which never usually happened with Screamer. Now he was even smiling again.

"Anyway," he was pacing again, but with a softer air. "Having said that, you've got more intelligence in that circuitry than an entire squadron of coneheads put together Skywarp ... " he turned to me. "That's why you are here!" He gleamed in the sunlight.

I looked up at him and tried to smile: "Thank you sir."

He smiled. "Tell me Skywarp, can you still teleport?"

I tried to think of the question and not my relief. It was a funny question, seeing as how the Autobots were all dead and there weren't going to be any battles here. And I was a bit rusty. There hadn't really been much call for it in the Provinces.

I said: "Yeah I er - haven't done it for a while ..." but then I caught the look on his face, and the smile had definitely gone again. I pulled myself up. "Yes - of course, Sir ..." I said

The smile was back. "Good! I want you to hone up on that skill. We may need it here .."

"Certainly sir ..."

"And Skywarp ..."

"Yes sir .."

"You can drop the "sir." Now that was _definitely _a good sign.

"Thank you sir. I mean, thank you...."

He put a hand on my shoulder and his touch and I could feel the strength and deadly power in it.

"I've got high hopes for you, Skywarp. Don't disappoint me."

And it should have made me feel better but for some reason, instead, it chilled me to the core.

.........

When I got across to Starscream, TC was nowhere to be seen. I said "Where's TC?"

He grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind the same clump of rocks which had hidden me from the sight of the rest of the camp during my strange recharge the night before.

"The Triplets are going to prepare a spot for the foundations of the launch pad," he said softly, "somebody needs to see that they don't screw it up. I thought he'd be best for the job...." He still had hold of my wrist and he drew me close to him and was looking into my optics. "That way you and I get to spend a little time together, Warp. Just you – and me...."

I closed my optics. "I thought you'd like that" He ran his knuckles gently down my cheek.

I longed for him. So much. I could not in all the history of knowing him remember longing for him like that, like I did then.

"Warp, look at me!" I opened my optics. His were searching mine, deeply, and they were beautifully crimson, with the dark rim around them. "You are so precious to me, Warp. And we are going to do so well here...." I felt him let go of my wrist and I reached for his hand, wanting to take hold of it forever. Our hands clasped and I was still looking straight into his optics and I felt the gentle touch on my cheek again, and I closed my optics again and longed even more, feeling the alien-ness of the earth sun and the sounds around and just wanting him to take me away back to Cybertron forever and forget all about this place..

"Soundwave has worked out a way to make energon cubes," he was saying, "all we need to do is locate a few sources of energy and get a stash and then we will be off back to Cybertron, and everything will be so much better. We can spend so much more time together..."

I know I murmured "Oh Screamer, I think I love you ..." aware that I'd never, ever said anything like it before but feeling that I meant it and at the same time vaguely remembering how I'd scoffed at TC for saying it when now I understood perfectly because it really wasn't hard at all to love Screamer. Then I thought of TC and I suddenly needed to ask about him, and I opened my mouth , but I felt his finger over my lips. Then he was real close and I felt his lips against mine and I leaned into him and put my arms around him, because I wanted then to just kiss him and kiss him, deeply, and never stop, but he pulled away.

"Later, little one ..." he said. His fingers touched my cheek one last time. "Later ...! Right now we have work to do. Come ...

Red white and blue dazzling brightly, his face so beautiful in the Earth light, he transformed with a grace and power which took my breath away, and took off.

........

We roared over what remained of the structure for the sixth or seventh time and let go a volley of cluster bombs. The sounds were deafening and delicious around the canyon. The last parts standing exploded in a shower of steel fragments, and smoke rose up from the ruins. Then we streaked away over the low hills which lay beyond the structure, him just below and ahead of me, stunning blue and white against the orange surface below.

How I loved him! And how good it felt to be flying – especially with him. The wind flowed over all my surfaces, cool against the heat of the sun. He banked hard around, wispy contrails flowing from his wingtips, and I burned around inside his turn, the noise from our engines hammering into the rocks below.

"That should do it," he said. I was enjoying myself too much; I felt fantastic. I said "can't we just do one more strafing run – just for old times' sake?"

To my great disappointment, he was gently reproachful. "No, Skywarp, we cannot. All must be in good time. For now, we have energy which must be conserved...." Then he called Rumble. "All right – we've finished. Go and do whatever it is you are going to do."

We transformed not far from where TC had given me the devastating news just the night before. It seemed a very long time ago now – but now his words came back to me with renewed terror and tears stung my optics at the thought that there might even be a _slight_ grain of truth in it. I had hoped we would land out of sight of the camp because I wanted desperately now for him to hold me and to settle this once and for all – I felt as though I needed that from him more than anything else in the Universe. But no – we were in full view – and he did not even say anything, he started to walk across to where Rumble was activating his pile drivers. My despair increased.

I couldn't help it, I ran after him and clutched at his arm. "Starscream, wait ..." my voice wavered. He stopped and turned to me, and his face was not unkind, but it was tinged with impatience. He put a hand on my shoulder and his touch as all firm and self assured. "Why are you so troubled, Skywarp? I know this is a strange place, but I have never seen you like this before...." he looked reproachful. "I really think you should exercise a little decorum."

I felt sudden overwhelming emotion again, almost to the degree that I had before passing out the night before. It wasn't just him, and this, I knew. It was everything that had happened in the last two days and it was so strong that I honestly wondered for the first time if I was losing my mind. I blurted out: "TC says you and he are leaving the Decepticons and going away to Icthea as soon as we get back to Cybertron. Is it true?"

He kept walking and said nothing for a moment and I thought: _oh Primus, it is_, and that dreadful empty sick feeling hit me again like a sledgehammer in the chest. But he looked at me then with his beautiful, dark rimmed crimson optics, so that I felt like I was going to melt, and he said "Ah, is that what this is about." Then he turned his face away and kept walking and I stumbled along beside him, hardly being able to bear what I was sure he was going to hear next.

But he didn't say it. He said instead "Skywarp, my silly Seeker, as If I would ever leave you? Now, as you know, Icthea interests me greatly, and I have made clear my intention to visit the planet on a study tour, and I asked Thundercracker to come with me because I did not think you would be interested ..." our feet crunched on the gravel and I was conscious again of the crispness of the air and the warmth from the earth sun on my surfaces. I remember thinking that whatever happened, there was nothing more important in the Universe than this. "...but permanent location ...?" he went on. "I don't think so! The place is a dead rock!"

It is hard to describe the sense of relief which went through me then. I just wanted to stop and hug him and weep with relief. But then I caught sight of Megatron ahead, hands on hips, glaring at us from the area of the destroyed steel and his words of earlier rang in my audials as though he were saying them right there. There was no greater incentive to pull myself together. I let go of Screamer's arm and pulled myself up and walked proudly like the Second of the Elite Air Command that I was supposed to be.

Screamer was still talking. He was smiling to himself: "Besides, I have a Cause to lead. And it will not be long now, Skywarp. Oh no! It will not be long now ..."

"Starscream!" Megatron thundered across at us then, his voice still deafening, even from that distance. "Get moving! This is an army base not a holiday camp!" I looked at Screamer again and he looked at me and smiled. A beautiful smile. "No," he whispered, "not long at all!"

Near Megatron I could see Rumble all puffed out and impatient looking, and the triplets all staring too, and then TC appeared beside them and was looking in our direction, and he didn't look too pleased, either. I whispered "Screamer ... are you going to tell TC that ... he thinks ..."

Screamer leaned close to me. "Enough of this now, Skywarp!" he said. "Thundercracker is well aware of my intentions. If he chooses to read more into the situation than there is then that is not very wise but unfortunately there is not much that I can do about it ... come now ..."

And as we came up to them all I could see that they looked curious but TC looked absolutely furious, and I suddenly felt very tired and my mind was filled with strange images again, and a sense of dread crept through every circuit and I shivered. I was suddenly worried about the whole situation in a way I didn't remember worrying ever before and I had the sudden awful sensation that this was nothing, that things were about to get a whole lot worse.

But I did not have time to think about it any further. Not straight away.

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_Things get better, but they do get worse first! Thanks for reading. A._


End file.
